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Family Game Night, Anyone? With STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

This post is part of a series authored by local PTA leaders sharing their stories as STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night Giveaway winners. These real-world experiences shed light on how an individual PTA planned and hosted their event with lessons learned and practical advice.

 

Curtsinger Elementary School PTA had a problem. We wanted to give our families bonding time and grow our membership, but it was becoming harder to grab families’ attention for evening programs. So, we sent out a quick survey to our families. We discovered a desire for more info about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). But how could we make that fun for kids? The National PTA had the answer. We saw an opportunity for a ThinkFun Game Night grant, so we applied and thankfully received 48 games.

Our local PTA members got together with the school librarian and counselor and came up with a plan to cater to all our students, Kindergarten to fifth-grade. To entice more families to come, we announced six STEM game giveaways. Then, our counselor contacted the high school to recruit student volunteers to help facilitate the game stations. We divided the gym into sections and created game stations for each grade level. We were ready to have some good old-fashioned fun.

Or so we thought! We had such an overwhelming turnout that the librarian had to provide additional board games to ensure that all students were engaged. We were so pleased to give our families the STEM programming they desperately wanted.

As the night progressed, it was a little chaotic with most of us not knowing how to play the new games, but thankfully we had several math and science teachers there playing and learning the games with students. In the end it was perfect, because we gave all the games to the library and the teachers could check out the games at any point throughout the rest of the year.

One of the teachers stated, “I cannot say enough great things about the programs you bring to our school. I can tell that you put a lot of thought into the programs, making sure that they are educational, yet fun, and most of all engaging for the students.”

In addition to the ThinkFun Family Game Night programming, we were also able to incorporate a parent education night during the event. Our guest speaker gave us practical tools to handle the stresses in today’s society and upcoming standardized tests. We had a great response from parents saying they had no idea they were adding stress to their kiddos and they were grateful for the tips and words of encouragement.

So, this all being said, get creative with your event! This didn’t cost us a dime! Will we do another Game Night? Absolutely! This year we are adding a sponsor from our community that has fun coding games for the kids. If you’re going big…why not have real Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots?

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Continue reading the series here:

Member Growth, Huge Turnout With STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Member Growth, Huge Turnout With STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Teachers Turn Up for STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Teachers Turn Up for STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Creating Lasting Memories with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Creating Lasting Memories with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Parents and Kids Join Forces with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

Parents and Kids Join Forces with STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night

About the Guest Contributor, Aliina Plunk: Aliina Plunk is the PTA President at Curtsinger Elementary School in Frisco, Texas.

Disclosure: ThinkFun is a Supporting Sponsor of National PTA’s STEM + Families initiative. The local PTA spotlighted in this blog was a winner of the 2017-2018 STEM + Families ThinkFun Game Night Giveaway and received a bundle of ThinkFun games. The author was not compensated for this blog post and the author’s opinions are his/her own.

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