Putting the Fun in Family Fun Night

Thursday, October 13th, Fair Grove Elementary hosted a Fall Family Fun Night for families to come hang out and play games together. 

Fair Grove hosts three Family Fun Nights each year. They also choose a theme for each event. “We went with a camping theme, and each grade level put together a camping themed station for families to visit,” Cara Kennard (Title One Reading Recovery), explained.  She said that they had initially wanted to do the event outside, but because of some wind pick-up, they decided to move it indoors. 

Each grade level team put together different things for families to do at the Family Fun Night. The pre-K team chose to sing songs around a fake, indoor campfire. The first grade team had a photo booth with an outdoor scene backdrop. The second grade team wanted to read stories around an indoor campfire. The third grade team chose a craft, making a firefly that glows. The fourth grade team had a canoe building station where the children made tin foil boats and then tested if their canoes could float. Coach Stockton (elementary PE teacher) had fun obstacle courses and activities in the gym. Lastly, the Title I team had a snack in the cafeteria. 

The teachers wanted to see as many families participating as possible, so they had to promote their night of fun. “To promote our family fun night, we encouraged students and staff to dress in camping/fishing/hiking clothing that day at school,” Mrs. Kennard said. The elementary school also sent home fliers with children and even posted the information on social media. 

“Teachers who chose to get involved with Family Fun Night thought of an idea for a fun station, then they had to gather the materials they needed and stay after school to set up,” Mrs. Kennard explained. One of those teachers, Kim Boatwright (Pre-K teacher) said, “Our PreK team did a Campfire songs activity.” They were planning to do an actual campfire outside, but could not due to the wind picking up. She elaborated, “We all worked together and made paper logs, used orange lights, and our campfire was amazing!”

Another teacher, Victoria Glenn (third grade teacher), said that she and the third grade team had chosen to do a craft for Family Fun Night. Mrs. Glenn said, “Ms. Hyde and I decorated the music room with blinking lights and a glow in the dark paper mache moon /black backdrop, and the families created little light up fireflies.”

The Family Fun Night seemed to be a hit with about 250 kids and parents showing up throughout the night to do fun activities together.