A couple of years ago I was feeling like I wanted to be more involved in my children's school, but I still had a small child at home, so I wanted something flexible. Here's what I wandered into:

Campbell's Labels for Education™ is a school support program whereby registered schools collect labels from Campbell product labels and redeem them for educational resources ranging from sports equipment and musical instruments to video equipment and computers.

Okay, that didn't sound like me at all just there, did it? I pasted and copied the above straight from the Canadian website (American webiste here).

So basically it is my job to make parents in my school community aware that by saving labels from Campbell's Soup products we can earn cool stuff based on a points system.

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I keep a box for label deposits just outside the main office at the school, and 2 or 3 times a year I count up all the labels and submit my count to Labels for Education.

This year I've really procrastinated setting out the box. I'm on the parent council now, and I enjoy working with people much better than counting labels at home alone. I think I need to invite some school-mom friends to help me with with this fundraiser, just for the company.

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Subversive Sales / Who's side is she on, anyways?

This weekend Jaclyn sold her last box of chocolate covered almonds. Selling a case of chocolate covered almonds is a mandatory fundraiser for all of the junior high students who participate in school sports. She sold 2 boxes to a boy in her class before she brought the case home, and then just kept the case in her room and slowly, even patiently, waited for us to gradually buy her out.

Carmen and Chloe have been extra enthusiastic to pick up more chores and earn a toonie ( a Canadian $2 coin) which went straight to Jaclyn's collection envelope.

Steven's most recent purchases made it from under his bed to in his garbage, along with wrappers from other after bedtime snacks, before I got around to taking the picture.

Jaclyn bought a few for herself, but was far more disciplined than the rest of us.

All together we bought $46 of chocolate covered almonds from Jaclyn in two weeks. Next year I really must make her go knock on doors.

Teacher Appreciation Week Postcards

One of our projects right now on the school council is preparing for teacher appreciation week at our school. Last year we did daily treats (BTW: Skip to my Lou had the best ideas for daily treats for teacher appreciation this year) and a special lunch for the teachers at the end of the week. I felt like that showed appreciation from the parents on the school council, but this year I want to involve all the families, and I especially want to show appreciation to the teachers from the students.

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I got the perfect idea from a friend of a friend in my google group. At her school she organized a postcard campaign from all of the students to their teachers, and then she gave each teacher a small 4x6 photo album to collect and store all the postcards as they arrived. Good mail to the teacher's homes would be fun, but I didn't think the teachers would be willing to give personal addresses out to all their students, so I made up simple postcards from white cardstock with a blank line for the teacher's name, and then the school address underneath. I'm handing out a couple of post cards per child with a letter explaining that the student is to write a note or draw a picture for their teacher on the blank side, expressing appreciation. Then the idea is for the student to use the second post card for a resource teacher or someone in the administration or office staff. I'm really excited to add this new aspect to our teacher appreciation week!

We're asking each family to pay for their own postage, partly because I don't want to be giving stamps away to families that don't follow through on the project, and partly because I don't think I have the budget to be buying all those stamps. Look at the perfect stamp I found:

(I never would have gone looking for the perfect stamp without the influence of a few good mail bloggers out there)

I downloaded the stamp image from Canada Post and put it in the upper right of each postcard, which turned out so cute. It will be covered with a real postage stamp, obviously, but I hope someone out there in my school community notices it and appreciates it!