Pajama Day? Have I lost my mind? Not totally! I do get that this special day is not appropriate for all school settings. 🙂 But don’t you agree that tucking in a few special days throughout the school year boosts the spirits of students and teachers?
Not long ago, I walked into the middle of a school-wide Hat Day. It was delightful, and preparation was minimal. Families were simply informed that students (and teachers) were invited to wear hats to school on that day. I can’t begin to tell you how many smiles I saw! And, best of all, some of those smiles were from students who I don’t often see smiling.
So what are your favorite special days? And what advice do you have for someone who is new to special days?
Aloha!
Diane
PS: These photos are from our Luau Day!
We have a drug free week where the kids get to wear crazy hats one day, crazy socks one day, crazy hair one day, and so on. The kids love it!
We just completed Spirit Week in preparation for our Regional Basketball Tournament and Prom.
Unfortunately, the student council didn’t opt for a Pajama Day, so many of the teachers were disappointed! We have a Cultural Day as the majority of our students are Inupiat Eskimo and it is nice to see them break out the snowshirts, mukluks, and beaded slippers. We also have a school color day. The one non-hit with our local police, but very popular day with the kids was Gansta Day. One way hip teacher used her primary chain links to attach a big clock around her neck…she was giving Flav-O-Flav a run for his money, but we called her Teach-O-Teach. We’ve also had Formal day and that is one that seems to brighten up everyone…so fun to see the little boys in their sports coats and the girls in their dresses.
We have spirit weeks two or three times each year.
I do a Wild Things Day based on the book Where the Wild Things Are. Since we are in Michigan I always hold it in the winter because Pjs feel so good in the winter. I tell the kids that we will wear PJ’s just like Max. Each Child brings in a pair of adult tube socks and we make Wild Thing Feet from them. We have a Wild Things Parade wearing the feet and the mask. Its always such fun.
We are celebrating Texas Public Schools Week right now, so we’ve had a couple of special-dress days. On Tuesday, the students got to dress as what they want to be when they grow up. Tomorrow, they get to wear their favorite university/college t-shirts.
We had pajama day last year during Week of the Young Child. It was awesome! I wish I could work in my pajamas each day! 😉
We celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday all week long. On Monday, I start with reading The Cat in the Hat, and we make silly hats. Tuesday is Crazy Sock day, and kids can either wear crazy socks or 2 mismatched socks. And of course Wednesday is Wacky Wednesday, so we either wear crazy outfits or we wear our shirts backwards. On Thursday, we make Green Eggs and Ham. On Friday, we dress up as our favorite storybook character. Sometimes I dress up as Viola Swamp from Miss Nelson is Missing, but this year I dressed up as my own made up character “Mama Cat in the Hat.” I asked many people, “Have you seen my son? I understand he is in trouble again!” We all had a lot of fun!
My school has Spirit Award Assemblies the first Friday of every month. Parents are invited at 8:30 for muffins and at 9:15, we all meet in the gym for a little program put on by one grade level and then each teacher gives out 2 or 3 awards.
Quite often the student council will decide on a theme for this day. We have had pajama day, twin day, dress like your parent day, hat day, crazy hair day, jersey day, Beach Day, and storybook character day. It is great fun, especially for kindergarten students!
We do a pajama day also.
Our last day of school is Hawaii Day. People in my rainy state love to play Hawaii.
We love pajama days, as well as other spirit days, such as certain color days (green for Earth Day and St. Patrick’s Day, orange and black for Halloween, red for Chinese New Year)! The key is to give LOTS of notice to parents so they don’t forget. However, even this is not foolproof, especially at my school. Most of my preschoolers ride the bus, and I rarely see/talk to their parents in person and thus cannot give them face-to-face reminders. When children do come in and are not in their pajamas (or other spiritwear), it is important to make them still feel included. For color days, I bring in some extra t-shirts with the special color on them that the kids who forget can wear.
We always do Pajama Day right before our school dismisses for Christmas. All classes dress in their pajamas. Our principal reads, The Polar Express, to the students. Then everyone snacks on hot chocolate and cookies donated by the PTO. The students and staff love
this day!!! Next, year I also plan on doing Camp-Read-A-Lot on Dr. Seuss birthday. Another kindergarten teacher did it this year and her students loved dressing in their pj’s and reading in the tent!
Oh, I absolutely LOVE special days and having them for my students! Who doesn’t get excited about doing fun things at school? I know I sure do! I love PJ day, space blast off day, St. Patrick’s Day, and many others!
Our PTO just sent out a schedule of “School Spirit Days” coming up throughout the next few weeks. Our first one was on Friday and it was Crazy Hair Day. It was so exciting to walk through the halls seeing how creative some of the students got! Students’ reactions to my own crazy hair was also very entertaining!
We had Pajama Day earlier in the year, but as a first year teacher, I wasn’t sure if teachers participated or not. I should have asked someone, because I was one of the only people in the whole school wearing regular clothes that day!