Box Tops for Education

What about having contests between the students?  You could do drawings for a prize?

Laurie

What about a beat last year's total, as a unified school body?

I realize this is still a class to class contest, but we're breaking it down a bit this year and giving each class ample opportunity to come out ahead.  We are having three "contest deadlines" (10/15, 2/15, and 4/15) and we're offering a popcorn party for the top class of each grade level and then a pizza party for the top class of the school for each contest period.

I also just saw in the "Success Stories" forum another great idea that recognizes each class by the number of Box Tops they get to (certain levels = certain prizes), regardless of who comes out on top.  It sounded like it really worked for them!

I do 4 contests a year, 2 of them I do by grade and then the other 2 I do by classroom. That way it isn't always teacher against teacher. I did do a silly bandz contest last year, where each student filled a collection sheet and then got a silly bandz. It gave the kids an individual goal. I usually vary my contest prizes from pizza, popcorn, hot cocoa & cookies, and icecream. The kids all seem to like that. Good Luck.

I am trying a geography based lesson this year.  Getting a huge map of the U.S.A., having the students send out an email to family and friends, asking to mail 5 or more box tops to the school with the students name.  Then we have categories...address closest to school, city farthest away, largest city, smallest town, most capital cities etc.  The class whose student meets a category...gets a snack for the entire class for the day.  I figure that at some point each class will win,

I am new to being a coordinator this year as well. In the past, our school never had anyone who pushed the program or did incentives. The money we earned was not very much and therefore not counted on for anything. I think we have the potential to ear 2-3 times what we had before if we just remind families to send them in and have appropriate incentives. For the first quarter, as an incentive to get teachers and students involved, we are allowing each classroom to keep whatever money their class earns. The teachers will be able to spend the money wherever they feel there is a need for their class. We have a very supportive school administration that is allowing me some freedom to get this going. Hope it works!

How about by grade level?  Or for every sheet of labels a child turns in, they get their name put in the hat for a drawing at the end of the year?

I had a similar problem when I was a coordinator and found that most teachers just didn't care for the competition against other teachers or amongst grade levels.  So the last year I was coordinator (before our unexpected move) I changed things up and made it so that they were just competing against themselves to reach goals.  Each class had the opportunity to meet the grand prize and not feel defeated when another class was just excelling and had an unobtainable amount.  It was set up like bus stops, with set amounts of box tops they needed to get to that bus stop (prize level).  Once they got there they would get pencils, otter pops, extra recess.....  grand prize was pizza party.  there were 7 levels total and I think there were 6 classes that made it to the grand prize, which was a huge accomplishment.  We went from $1150 the year before to over $2100!!!!  They liked the new method, not competing against other classes and being able to acheive levels even if another class was way beyond them they still had hope.  Hope that helps!

My sons middle school gives out "Jag Bucks" it is money they earn for good behavior, etc... they get one Jag Buck for every 10 box tops they send in. They have a big collection bin at the front of the school the kids need to put their name and grade on the bag of box tops then they go through them and distribute the Jag bucks to the kids that participate. Then they can save their "money" to buy something in the student store!

If your school doesn't have a student store, do a contest similar to this but just have an individual prizr at the end of 1 or 2 months for the student that brings in the most. you could do a $5 or $10gift card to Mc Donalds or an ice cream place or something.

Hello!  This is my first time being coordinator for our school.  I was reading some of your comments and am wondering:  Who pays for the pizza parties and other prizes?  I would like to set up a contest at our school.  Would I need to go to the principal about this or the PTA?  Thanks!

annasteadman:

Hello!  This is my first time being coordinator for our school.  I was reading some of your comments and am wondering:  Who pays for the pizza parties and other prizes?  I would like to set up a contest at our school.  Would I need to go to the principal about this or the PTA?  Thanks!

Every school is different.  It wouldn't hurt to ask both.

At ours, if the PTO is in charge of the contest, then it is up to the PTO to reward the participants. We usually give the teacher a set amount (say 25 bucks). You can't always pinch every penny. Sometimes you have to spend some to make some. But you can be creative, maybe a local restaurant will give you a discount, or let you cater a party for free if you put an ad in your school newspaper for them. Shoot for the stars, you may reach them!

I went to local businesses w/ a merchant donation letter & asked for donations.  We had Pizza Hut donate a couple of pizzas for our class who turned in the most throughout the year at the end of the year.  I also had a couple gift cards from local businesses (Wal-Mart, art gallery/cafe, Video Giant & a gift shop) & one business donated a candle.  I bought a teachers pencil & a gift basket & a set of grading pens & all this went into the basket for that class's teacher.  Just ask around & be professional-local is best, but we're in a pretty small area, so I'm emailing & writing companies also.

As far as who to ask...if you work w/ the PTO on things, fine (I do & am now an officer), but go & talk w/ the principal first & foremost!!  I've been going between the principal & vice-principal to get all my info out & go over ideas.  They're the ones in charge & will usually help you more...but everyone's different also.  I just found out that I can't use donation letters w/ the school letterhead, which poses a problem to the companies that asked me for it.

Scour the forum & facebook pg for ideas & go from there.  Good luck!!

Hi ladys! well here goes another year we are starting a contest the 1st class that come up 500 or more boxtops-and soup labes and we do best choice gets a pizza party. we have about 600 or less, we could use lots more ideas!!!! thank for your help in the past!

R.Elliott

Chisholm Trail Park City KS

My PTA pays for things I need like copies , postage etc AND they pay for the pop corn for our Whole school contest / school pride day (we run 2 contests which end a1 1/2 - 2 weeks before box op deadlines) we see if the school can send in "X" amount of labels (everything we collect counts not just the box tops) by such -n- such date and we will have a pop corn party day !!  The kids do not know this but they are getting the pop corn either way ... aren't we (the PTA) sneaky ...;-D  ;-D  !!  The money comes out of the box top . milk cap , Tyson money since it is trying to boost our earnings .  Ask both the principal and the PTA ... cover your bases so to speak .  Good luck ... but most of al  have fun.  If it's not fun for you then it will not work .  

We just had a context at our school to earn a free recess.  For every 50 box tops a class collected they moved 5 yards on the football field.  When the class had crossed the 100 yard mark they scored a touchdown and were awarded their free recess.  Every class could win so no one was left out.  It was alot of fun and the children loved it.

Our PTA puts up the initial funds for the incentives, but the money actually comes from the Box Tops earnings.

How about a drawing?  Our school doesn't do the "class vs class" either.  So I do it this way:  I do 4 contests a school year (average) and make it a collection drawing where for every 50 box tops turned in, the teacher's name is put into a drawing.  So, if a class turns in a lot of box tops, their chances of winning increases but isn't guaranteed.  I've done it that way for 3 years and it seems to be working.  I still get tons of box tops turned in between contests.

Great ideas!  Here's another that I've heard but not used:  Use the boxtops like votes.  Choose a couple of different prizes and let the students put in boxtops for votes on the prize.  At our school, we have a dress code, so the prize might be something like Crazy Hat day or some alternative dress day.  One school I'd heard this from had prize where the "winner" was a teacher or administrator that had to do something wacky...like do the dunking booth at carnival or do some silly stunt.    The NO COST prizes are the best for my school, as we are TIGHT on budget.

lherkimer If the students & Teachers don't like to challenge each other,take it to the community. Go around to local businesses ask if they are willing to donate items,services,gift certificates as rewards for a Pledge-A-Thon where the community members sign a pledge of 25,50,100 BTFE have a deadline for the pledge to be fulfilled & turned in,to be entered into a drawing for the donated items.

Mrshowse703 I'm gonna have to use this idea of yours along with another on giving each Teacher the $$ of their BTFE submitted. Thank you for sharing.

I did contests for the first time ever this school year and am glad we did. We doubled our earnings this year and tripled what we had earned just 2-3 yrs ago. I did one in the Fall as a back to school theme, and one in January, each about 6-7 weeks long. I had the grade levels competing against each other and each week I updated a chart on a bulletin board AND every Monday morning gave an update on the morning announcement. Each grade level has their own collection containers in their mod. The winning grade level earned a pizza snack party (if it had been the same grade level to win I would have changed it to something else).

Now I'm in a quandry as to what to do for this time before school ends..not really up to holding another contest but feel like we should do something like a drawing of some kind every now and then to keep the bts coming in. I like the idea of for every collection sheet turned in their name goes into a drawing, and the prize being a BTFE brand store item or something.

Our prizes are paid for out of the Box Tops checks.