Family Day in school is a special occasion that allows children to celebrate and appreciate their families. It is a fun-filled day where parents and extended family members set aside their work and come together to celebrate their special bond.
Besides giving families a chance to spend quality time with each other, this day reminds everyone that it’s important for families to take time out of their busy schedules every now and then to spend time with the ones that truly matter.
If you plan to organize a family day at school and are looking for some cool activities, look no further! Below, you’ll find some interesting activities for your next family day event that everyone will love participating in and enjoying.
Fun activities for your next family day celebration at school
1. Draw As a Family
Drawing and coloring activities are a great choice for family day celebrations. Kids love it, and even grown-ups don’t mind returning to their childhood days when drawing and coloring were so much fun! Especially when they are doing it with their kids, allowing them to spend some special time together. So, what could be some ideas for this activity?
You can ask parents and kids to draw their family portraits. You can also place a jar full of prompts at the drawing station. Families can pull out one card and draw the scene mentioned on it. Prompts like “Our family watching a movie together” or “Our favorite family holiday” can be good prompts that will allow families to express themselves artistically and cherish their family bonding. Allocate a display wall where every family can put up their artwork for others to see and admire.
2. Read a Book Together
Create a book reading center in your school’s library or any other room you deem fit, or set up a large reading tent where families can sit back, relax, and have some family-reading time together. Besides giving families an opportunity to slow down on the fun-filled day, reading together brings families closer.
It helps build connections as families enjoy the imaginary world of stories. Also, when parents read with their kids, it reinforces the importance of reading books and cultivates a lifelong love for reading. It emphasizes that reading together at home regularly helps improve reading fluency in kids.
To match your reading center to the day’s theme, you can provide books that showcase the importance of having a family or revolve around family life. Books like Love Makes A Family by Sophie Beer, When Aidan Became A Brother by Kyle Lukoff, What Makes a Family? by Hannah Bruner, and Sometimes It’s Grandmas and Grandpas by Gayle Byrne would make good additions to the family reading center.
3. Family Day Crafts
Crafts are a great way to get the creative juices flowing. Kids will love their parent’s company while making special crafts on family day. Set up craft stations with a variety of craft supplies such as colored paper, colorful buttons and yarn, popsicle sticks, scissors, glue, and so on. Create a few family-related crafts a day or two before the event and use them to decorate the craft station. This will add a hint of color to the set-up and give families something to draw some inspiration from.
Crafts such as family finger puppets, handprints of the family, a wall hanging with everyone’s names on it, a popsicle stick family, and a paper house with family members drawn on it are some ideas that you can exhibit at your craft station. Encourage kids and their families to be as creative as possible to come up with unique crafts that stand out from the crowd.
4. Make Your Family Tree
Wouldn’t family day celebrations be incomplete without making your own family tree? It is rare for parents to talk about previous generations amidst the daily grind. This wonderful activity gives parents a chance to talk about their family. It helps kids learn about their roots and how their family has evolved over all these years. Seeing themselves on the family tree promotes strong self-identification in children, higher self-esteem, and builds their interest in their family’s history.
When kids know whom they’re related to and how they are more open to interacting and bonding with them. Look up some creative family tree ideas on the internet and set up a station where families can make their family tree. It could be as simple as drawing a tree trunk and cutting and pasting leaves with the names of all members of the family. Or using twigs collected from the school playground to make the tree body and pasting pictures of family members on it.
5. Family Day Show
Organize a show filled with theatre and music to highlight the importance of families. Of course, this will need prior preparation on your part. Prepare a play and a few songs about family, which everyone would love to see and enjoy. Select a few kids to participate in the play and others who can perform in a musical performance. These activities will allow students to show how much they appreciate and love their families.
You can begin practicing with your students several days in advance so that kids have ample time to master their performances so they can put up an excellent show for their families. Decide on costumes to go with their performances and inform the parents so they can make appropriate arrangements. Finally, fix a “show time” on family day and send out invitations to welcome families to watch their kid’s performance.
6. Family Day Mural
A mural is an artwork directly painted on the walls. Murals are a popular way of brightening up a dull corner in school. Find a wall in your school premises that could benefit from a little revamp. While murals are directly painted on walls, if you’re uncomfortable with the idea, you could cover up a wall with large sheets of paper and get it ready before the event. Prepare a sign board and invite families to come forward and draw a little something on the wall.
They could write an inspirational quote, draw something that reflects their culture and heritage, or sign their family names to show they were a part of the event. The result will be a beautiful culmination of contributions made by your school families. You could even click the images of this mural and turn them into your school magazine’s cover!
7. Guess Who
A family day event is not only meant for parents and their kids. It welcomes grandparents and all extended family members, including uncles, aunts, cousins, and other close relatives. So when your students are spending a day with their entire family, why not host a fun “Guess Who” session that will bring lots of fun and laughter?
Set up a space where families can enjoy this activity. One person can come forward and enact another family member. Other family members will now have to guess who that person is. You could provide different props that can help participants in this task. Things used by specific members of the family, like a hat, glasses, cooking utensils, toys, etc., can make good props.
8. The Cooking Contest
Have a fireless cooking contest where families can cook together and create a special dish for the judges. You could either choose to provide the ingredients or ask families to bring their own if they would like to participate in the contest. To make this a little more challenging, turn this into a time-bound activity of 30 – 45 minutes.
Encourage participants to finish their dishes within the time frame and bring them to the judges, who will taste each family’s dish and declare a winner. Award the winning family with the title “Family Cook-off Champions” and give their recipe a space in the school’s yearly magazine.
9. The Photo Booth
Give your school families a little keepsake to take back home after having a wonderful time during your school’s family day event. Set up a beautiful backdrop where families can get their pictures clicked and carry a beautiful memory home. Use balloons, garlands, streamers, or other items to create the backdrop.
You could even put up a “Family Day” banner to highlight the event. In addition, remember to provide hand props for families to take pictures with. Hand props are fun and really lift up the mood of the image. Your hand props could have phrases like “Family of the Year,” “We love being a family,” or “Together we make a family” to reflect the love and affection shared between all.
10. The Big Foot Challenge
The big foot racing can be a super fun challenge for families on family day. The challenge involves completing a race course wearing a set of big feet which you could easily rent from local suppliers. Families must work in unison to lift one foot at a time while holding on to attached ropes and walking toward the endpoint.
The family that reaches the end point before any other wins the challenge. Winning this challenge is possible only when the team members have excellent coordination and synchronization. The big foot is a great team-building game that also reinforces the importance of working together as a family to smoothly sail through the journey called “life.”
Wrapping up,
Families are important. Our family has our back during the most challenging times and celebrates our wins during the best times in our lives. Having them share our joys and sorrows gives us a sense of security and unconditional love. They are the ones who see the best in us and encourage us to be a better version of ourselves.
That’s why we all must celebrate our families and show our appreciation. Family Day at school helps children understand the importance of families. It helps them realize that they are loved and important to their families. And finally, the event allows families to reconnect and spend a memorable time with one another and other families at school.
I am Priyanka Sonkushre, a writer and blogger. I am the person behind “One Loving Mama,” a mom blog. Equipped with a Bachelor’s degree along with an MBA, my healthcare background helps me deeply understand learning difficulties. I know how challenging it can be for parents to find the right resources to help their children excel in life. So, here I am to blend my healthcare expertise with my parenting experience to create valuable and helpful resources for parents and teachers supporting children with learning differences. If you wish, you can follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn.