Is my school the only one?

[RF536]

After reading several of the posts here, I am wonder if our school district is the only one or one of the few who does some things. In our district all grades K-12 ride on the same bus, with the younger kids riding in the front seats.

We still have a Holloween party/parade every year for the elementary kids, no harvest party for us. The kids can dress up, no blood and gore and no weapons. They also get candy and junk food at the party, hey its once in a while it won't kill them.

Our K-1 classes even have a Thanksgiving feast every year.

We still have a Christmas party and a evening Christmas concert for the parents. Santa also makes an appearance each year at the Christmas concert so the kids can meet with him and parents can take pictures. Teachers decorate the classrooms and even put up Chrismas trees.

Our school encourages not only the parents to be involved in the school the the community as well. Teachers love having parents help out in the lower grades so that they can work with the smaller reading groups while the rest of the class is working on laguage arts centers. They encourge others in the community to help by listening to the older kids read to them for 30 minutes a day.

All we have to do to get into the school is sign in at the office and pick-up a visitor badge.

 

[sandy6879]

Well, we do some of that still.

K-5 had their own schools, then 6-8, then 9-12. So no riding on the same busses.

Our district sponsors a Thanksgiving feast district-wide and free of charge for all grades. It's a nice lunch, with all the traditional foods.

No Christmas parties, although the younger grades did a "holiday" party. The kids also put on a holiday concert but it's winter themed, not Christmas.

We do have parents helping out, although it seems to be primarily in the younger grades. Once the kids hit middle school, a lot of parental involvement seems to go away. Middle school you can't just drop by the school to help out, you do need to have a reason to be there. I would imagine the same is true in the high schools.

 

[Ilovemylife]

If you lived in WI, I'd wonder if you went to my kids' school.

The only thing that's different is we don't have Santa come to the Christmas concert...he comes on a different day.

 

[KiminChicago]

Sounds like my DD's school. Not only do they still have a Halloween party, since there are some stables near the school, the Headless Horseman also makes an appearance. They also do a Holiday Sing-along in December where the big hit every year is the teachers' version of the "12 Days of Christmas" ( On the first day of Christmas my students said to me "Is it time for our Christmas party?" Day 2: "When's recess?" Day 3: "Do we have a test today?" you get the idea....)

I also work as a sub for our school district and I never get a call for DD's school because it is such a popular school. We have an automated system for subs and subs can go online and claim jobs, I'm rarely in the right place at the right time to get a job at DD's school.

As far as DS's middle school -- I've noticed that the same parents who volunteered at DD's school are the ones who show up to help at the middle school. There are fewer needs for volunteers at the middle school, but we all know who's going to show up!

 

[mvazul]

After reading several of the posts here, I am wonder if our school district is the only one or one of the few who does some things. In our district all grades K-12 ride on the same bus, with the younger kids riding in the front seats.

We still have a Holloween party/parade every year for the elementary kids, no harvest party for us. The kids can dress up, no blood and gore and no weapons. They also get candy and junk food at the party, hey its once in a while it won't kill them.

Our K-1 classes even have a Thanksgiving feast every year.

We still have a Christmas party and a evening Christmas concert for the parents. Santa also makes an appearance each year at the Christmas concert so the kids can meet with him and parents can take pictures. Teachers decorate the classrooms and even put up Chrismas trees.

Our school encourages not only the parents to be involved in the school the the community as well. Teachers love having parents help out in the lower grades so that they can work with the smaller reading groups while the rest of the class is working on laguage arts centers. They encourge others in the community to help by listening to the older kids read to them for 30 minutes a day.

All we have to do to get into the school is sign in at the office and pick-up a visitor badge.

Ou school is the same way. I like it that way. The only exception is Santa comes during a school assembly on the last day of school before Christmas break.

Michelle

 

[Tosie]

Sounds like my DD's school. Not only do they still have a Halloween party, since there are some stables near the school, the Headless Horseman also makes an appearance.

That is so cool!!!!! The kids here would LOVE that!

 

[cteddiesgirl]

I don't know much about the schools, but I do know that my district busses all the kids (K-12) at the same time. They pick up all the kids at the same time, then go from one school to the next to drop them off.

 

[mamamary]

It's different here. K-5, 6-8, 9-12 (3 different bus shifts)

No Halloween party.

We do have a Thanksgiving Feast at lunchtime.

Not sure if there will be a Christmas party but if there is they will call it a Holiday Party.

We have a Winter Concert.

We have a Breakfast with Santa on a Saturday along with a gift buying area for kids to purchase gifts for their family on their own.

Parents are very encouraged to help out with the elementary schools, not as much with middle school and I don't know about high school.

 

[ReneeA]

I grew up in northern Michigan - my family is all still there and my mom and sister work for the school district. They still do all those things there.

I live in Detroit, and we do not here. In fact, our district cut bussing so we don't even have busses anymore.

 

[Jennabeth]

After reading several of the posts here, I am wonder if our school district is the only one or one of the few who does some things. In our district all grades K-12 ride on the same bus, with the younger kids riding in the front seats.

We still have a Halloween party/parade every year for the elementary kids, no harvest party for us. The kids can dress up, no blood and gore and no weapons. They also get candy and junk food at the party, hey its once in a while it won't kill them.

Our K-1 classes even have a Thanksgiving feast every year.

We still have a Christmas party and a evening Christmas concert for the parents. Santa also makes an appearance each year at the Christmas concert so the kids can meet with him and parents can take pictures. Teachers decorate the classrooms and even put up Christmas trees.

Our school encourages not only the parents to be involved in the school the the community as well. Teachers love having parents help out in the lower grades so that they can work with the smaller reading groups while the rest of the class is working on laguage arts centers. They encourge others in the community to help by listening to the older kids read to them for 30 minutes a day.

All we have to do to get into the school is sign in at the office and pick-up a visitor badge.

I see you are in Michigan too, I wonder if our kids go to school in the same district. We have Halloween parties, and a Winter Concert where the kids sing a Hanukkah song and a Christmas song. Santa comes to the Christmas parties and parents are encouraged to be at the school (as long as they have filled out their volunteer forms) and home baked treats and goodies are not only accepted, they are encouraged. It really seems to be rare nowadays.

 

[daughtersrus]

Much of what you say is the same here. We are a "unified" district meaning all of the grade levels (early childhood - high school) are part of the same district (many others in the Chicago suburbs have different districts for elem/middle school than high school) but there is no way all of the different age groups could ride one bus. First of all, the high school starts about 7:30 with middle school starting about 8:15 and elementary starting at 9:15. Besides that, there are so many kids in my subdivision alone that there are 4 separate buses just to pick up the high school students, 5 for middle school and only one for elementary because our elementary school is within walking distance (the bus is for those kids that attend a different school ~same district~ for the gifted program).

For a district our size (about 18,000 students), we still have Christmas and Easter break, Halloween parties for the young kids, Santa's secret shop...

 

[cinmell]

My daughter's school had a Halloween festival complete with a costume contest! We just had our Christmas bazaar a couple of weeks ago and children were able to have their picture taken with Santa. Our school's Christmas show is next week! We also have an Easter Bunny breakfast a week or 2 before Easter.

We are also encouraged to go to the school to help out at reading time or with any other assistance that may be needed. I was at school the week of Thanksgiving to help my daughter's second grade class make pilgrim and indian hats/headpieces.

 

[John Smith1]

The same bus? How many people are in your community?

 

[ozarkmom]

Our school does most of those things too.

 

[Camicar]

We have separate buses and routing for the different ages.

The schools let out at different times and the buses have different routes. The elementary bus stops every 3 blocks or so. The middle school bus stops every 4-5 blocks.

And the high school bus actually stops 10 blocks away from our house -- which would mean my dd would have to walk up/down a long curvy hill with no sidewalks in a town notorious for poor snow removal. Not gonna happen. Also... she is afraid of some of the scarier kids on her bus. I can't imagine exposing little ones to these juvenile delinquents.

 

[RF536]

I am not sure how many are in the community, as we are growing fast, but I know that there are only about 100 in the K class this year and that is the largest class they have had so far, so we are a very small town. Up until 3 years ago grades 6-12 were all in one building.

We don't have to fill out volunteer paperwork, just talk to the teacher about if and when they need help and show up.

They also don't rename the Christmas concert "Holiday" concert, it is a Christmas concert and they sing Christmas songs.

They also have a Easter egg hunt at the Elementary school around Easter. They send a note home asking us to send in so many eggs filled with a small prize, like candy or a penny.

 

[Ariel Mae]

We have an elementary school, which suits from pre-K to 5th grade, a middle school, 6-8th grade, and a high school, 9-12th grade. We all rode the same bus. We'd all get picked up, at around 7, and get to school, around 8, for classes to start. The middle school got out the latest, at 3:15, with the elementary school letting out at 3:00, and the high school at 3:05/3:10. But we all rode the same bus.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

My daughter's school is grades 1-5 (our town doesn't have public K) and they all ride the same bus, first graders in the front, fifth graders in the back.

Her school does do all the holidays and stuff with gusto.