School Spirit Days

When I was teaching, we didn’t do too many school spirit days, but in the two decades that I have been home with my kids, they have exploded! For those of you with very little ones, school spirit days are days when the kids come dressed up in a theme. The aim is to make school more fun and to engage the kids more fully in their learning. 

The Usuals

You can plan that there may be spirit weeks on the weeks right before a school break (Winter, Spring or Summer break).  Those might have a different theme every day.  They are often things like: school colors day, neon day, crazy hair day, tropical day, ugly holiday sweater day…you get the idea. Sometimes, they are related to a unit of study. Michael had Fairy Tale Day (coming in March) and both boys dressed for the countries they visited in their Third-Grade study of world geography. 

Third Grade prompted one of my favorite lines from my husband, ‘When is go to school dressed like a 3^rdgrader day?’

For most kids, spirit days are tons of fun! And for the parents, they’re a giant pain. You usually receive notification of said spirit day at approximately 9PM the night before as your child is laying his head on the pillow. You either resign yourself to the fact that your child will not be participating in the spirit day, or you run around the house like a lunatic trying to find something they can wear.

Communication

Let the teacher know that advanced notice of these types of things really helps you.  You can even ask at Back to School Night, “Are there any spirit days/dress-up days you do every year?” Then you can plan ahead. Or, ask the aide to write it in your child’s communication notebook for you.

Make a Bin

I’d suggest keeping some stuff in the house that is the elementary/middle school version of the preschool dress-up bin. Some oversized solid color tee shirts, silly hats, etc… Things we had in our house that came in handy included sports team gear, patriotic stuff, baseball caps and Dave’s old shirts and ties.

Then, you can use google. When you find out about the spirit days, google some ideas, and see if you have anything you can use. At least you’ll have a little treasure trove to raid to help create a spirit day outfit.

Last Resort

More than once, I have placed and amazon next day order for a Hawaiian shirt or some other spirit day item. I always wanted the kids to have the option to participate.

Tee Shirts

If your child has sensory issues…Mikey is currently wildly raising his hand and shouting, “me, me, I have sensory issues!” Be realistic about what they can and will wear.  We used tee shirts for almost everything.  For favorite book character day, Mikey wore a tee shirt with the Winnie the Pooh gang on it.  For Star Wars Day (May 4th), he wore a tee shirt with the phrase “May the Fourth be with you”, and for superhero day, his Superman tee shirt saved the day.

For 90’s day, he wore a tee shirt with a phrase from the office on it. “Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica.” If you need to take a moment to embrace the idea that the 90’s has now become a historical ‘decade day’ at school, I feel your pain. We are getting old, my friends.