Parties
Main parties are Christmas, Valentine's and End-of-Year. Optional parties are Open House, Thanksgiving, Science Day, Grandparents Day, Field Day and Awards Day. Obtain from teacher the dates of all classroom parties and her expectations for each. Post volunteer sign-up sheets for each party at Open House. Assign one room mother to organize refreshments and obtain parental involvement (using volunteers from the sign-up sheets) for each party. Pool parties are not allowed during school hours for any class in the Lower School.
Field Trips
Obtain from teacher a list of field trips and dates. Assign one or two room mothers to call and organize parents to drive on field trips. Post sign-up sheets for volunteers for each trip at Open House.
Lunch Duty
Recruit a room mother (or parent) to take children to lunch up to 2 days per month so teachers can eat together. Let teacher pick the day she would like to go to lunch. Parent should pick up children in classroom 5 minutes before lunchtime, escort children to lunchroom, stay with children during lunch and return them to classroom at end of lunch period.
Also, during Teacher Appreciation Week, February 14-18, room mothers will be asked to provide lunch duty on one day that week while teachers go off campus for lunch.
Coffee Supply
Room mothers will be asked to provide coffee, juice, sugar and cream, styrofoam cups and napkins throughout the year to stock the teachers' work/break room. Each grade will be assigned a month in which to check on supplies and replenish them. Contact Joyce Brooks or Linda Collins on your assigned month to see which items need to be purchased. Coordinate with other room mothers in your grade.
1st grade.....August, Jan
2nd grade....Sept, Feb
3rd grade.....Oct, March
4th grade.....Nov, April
5th grade.....Dec, May
K-4.....Aug, Oct, Dec, Feb, April
K-5.....Sept, Nov, Jan, Mar, May
Note: K4 and K5 will not need to replenish supplies as often because there are fewer teachers.
Encouragement
Room mothers are to encourage parents to continuously love, praise and uplift their teachers. Encourage the use of our voice mail and e-mail systems to send positive notes and thank yous. Encourage parents to be creative by sending cards, memos, donating books to library "in honor of...", etc. Encourage parents to read the "Knight Line", look for "Teacher of the Week" and send them words of praise. Discourage parents from calling teachers at home unless there is an emergency.
Classroom Support*
Room mothers can provide light classroom help as needed. (i.e. centers, cut & paste, book orders, etc.)
Communication
Assign one room mother to write and distribute memos to parents. All memos must be preapproved by teacher or Lower School principal.
Teacher Gifts
Guidelines for Teacher Gifts
(1) Room Mothers will be responsible for collecting money for three events only. These three events are Teacher's Birthday(s), Christmas, and End of Year. Parents should never feel coerced into contributing towards a gift and should be given the opportunity to choose to give collectively or individually. Gift giving to any other event such as Valentine's, wedding or baby showers, teacher appreciation, etc. will be the responsibility of each individual parent.
(2) For Teacher's birthday(s), Christmas, or End of Year gift(s), room mothers can not collect more than $20 from each parent for each teacher. In the event that a parent gives more than $20 for each teacher, the excess amount (amount over $20 per teacher) must be returned to the parent with an explanation that room mothers are not permitted, by PTF, to handle any money in excess of $20 per teacher. The parent has the option to purchase a gift individually, with the excess, if they so choose. Collection of money from parents should never occur more than 2 weeks. before event.
(3) Room Mothers will be required to fill out a "Schedule of Money Received" form when collecting money from parents for Teacher's Birthday, Christmas, and End of Year. Parent or Child's name, amount of money collected from each parent, the total amount collected, the name of the event, and the event date should be filled in. A copy of this form is to be sent to the Lower School Room Mother Chairman no later than 1 week after event.
(4) Room Mothers will be required to have all correspondence regarding money preapproved by the Lower School Room Mother Chairman prior to distribution. All other correspondence must be copied to the Lower School Room Mother Chairman and kept on file.
Assign one room mother to collect money and purchase gifts for teachers. (i.e. Christmas, birthday, End of Year)
In an effort to follow proper procedures and to give guidance to room mothers in the collection of monies for teacher gifts, the following guidelines have been issued. These guidelines should be strictly followed, by any parent handling money, to ensure proper accountability and to leave adequate audit trails.
*Any requests by teachers other than those listed above should be approved by Lower School principal.
