Friday Features - 9/14/18 | Smore Newsletters for Education

This week's Features is all about building our BGS Community. Whether you join the PTO as a member, volunteer as a homeroom parent, or share some of your time to plan or help out at an event, our entire school community benefits. Students love to see their family members helping around the school. Read on for some of the many ways you can support BGS!

- Kelly Schmidt & Briana George, BGS PTO Co-Presidents

Get Involved as a Homeroom Parent

Interested in ways that you can contribute to our BGS Community? Want to make an ongoing commitment? Consider becoming a Homeroom Parent!

Homeroom Parents play a key role in:

organizing and running four class parties during the year
assisting with the Thanksgiving Feast
attending PTO meetings and sharing important information with the teacher and other parents (you may take turns attending the PTO meetings, but at least one Homeroom Parent from each classroom should attend each meeting or find an alternate to attend from the class)
collecting class fund monies
communicating with the teacher
sharing information with your class about class activities and any additional messages from the PTO

Bright yellow Homeroom Parent Info forms were sent home via backpack mail this week. In case you missed it, just click on the Homeroom Parent Info image above. It covers all of the key questions you might have about being a Homeroom Parent Volunteer.

If you're interested, register on our volunteer form here and then join us for a brief informational session, "So You Want to be a Homeroom Parent?" on Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 6:30 in the BGS Library. In that meeting, we'll cover the specific duties, share some best practices from prior homeroom parents, and make sure you know what you're signing up for. We'll hold the Homeroom Parent lottery on Sept. 27.

This year, we're offering a special PTO Membership & Spirit Kit combo! We invite all families in our BGS community (parents, teachers, faculty, grandparents - you name it!) to join our PTO. As you read last week, the PTO provides a wide variety of services and fun events to help make Bradley Gardens a great place to learn. More information about what the PTO does are described below - just click the photo to enlarge.

Our Spirit Kits this year are exclusive for PTO Members to order. The kit includes a limited edition BGS Spirit Tee (including our school theme - "An Attitude of Gratitude"), plus a BGS water bottle and sling style backpack. Flyers will be coming home soon, but you can order now and pay via our online form.

Order options include a membership & spirit kit combo ($30 - one per family), additional kits for the same family ($20 each - extended adult sizes an extra $3.50 for sizes 2XL-4XL), as well as a PTO Membership only ($15 per family per year).

For questions about membership or spiritwear, please contact Kelly or Briana at bgsptopresident@gmail.com.

Volunteering in our school community is a great way to show your kids that you support their education. It's also a fantastic way to meet other parents and teachers. Whether you can give 30 minutes or a few hours, we have volunteer opportunities of all sizes.

Below are just some of the current volunteer opportunities we have available. Always be sure to sign up on the Sign Up Genius that's noted - that way our event organizers can ensure we have enough helping hands to keep things running smoothly!

Volunteer at the Book Fair

Our Fall Scholastic Book Fair will run from September 24 - 28. Students will attend with the class, plus we'll be open for Family Shopping the evening of Wed., Sept. 26.

We can't run the Book Fair without some friendly helpers! From helping our Bears pick out some books, to checking them out and keeping the fair tidy, we can use a few extra hands.

If you can spare some time to help make this event a blast for our students, consider signing up for a shift or two on our Sign Up Genius. Shifts are available in half hour increments throughout the school day, plus during the evening shopping event.

Hope you'll join us!

Help Us Plan the Halloween Hoot!

The Halloween Hoot, our BGS Trunk or Treat tradition, isn't until the end of October, but the planning starts now. After last year's Hoot, we had a lot of new ideas for how the event could be different. This year's Halloween Hoot Chairs, Jessica Braun & Janine Guasco, would love to get a small committee together to help plan the various components of the Hoot. If you're interested in brainstorming and planning the event, please reach out to Jessica at jbraun228@yahoo.com or Janine at Janine1008@hotmail.com.

Further information about volunteering to sponsor a trunk, assist at the event and donate food will be shared in the coming weeks.