Planning a Special Event Day Your Students Will Remember

What do you remember most from school? Which days are the brightest memories? I’m guessing it wasn’t a math lesson from a textbook or answering the questions from an anthology passage. You probably remember the days you did something out of the ordinary. This need to break away from the norm and provide my staff and students with the opportunity to make memories together has motivated me to create a different type of school day.

I decided to create special event days that would allow students to explore ideas, projects, and activities. At my school, we do these special event days at least five times a year, and each day has a specific theme to tie everything together.

PLANNING FOR A SPECIAL EVENT DAY

The first step in planning a special event day is picking a theme. In the past, we’ve had a career day, an outdoor learning day, a STEM day, and a day of play. The options are endless, so I encourage school leaders to think about what makes the most sense for their individual context and students.

Once you have the theme, the next step is to determine when this day should happen. I generally pick days right before a break or a long weekend. For example, we held the Day of Reading the day before winter break. I strategically chose this both because it would help inspire students to read over the break and because it had been a historically low attendance day, and doing something unique encouraged more students to show up.

We have also done a Day of Art on Valentine’s Day, as this has historically been a day when students are very distracted and excited. Rather than leaning into consequences, we put students’ excitement to use and spend the day creating art projects that they could share with friends and family to celebrate the day.

After selecting the day, I put it on the school calendar and start telling students and their families so that everyone can get excited about it.

SCHEDULING A SPECIAL EVENT DAY

Once you’ve chosen a theme and a day, the next step is to set the schedule for the special event day. At my school, I keep lunch and recess, but everything else is turned into special event periods. Classroom teachers, special education staff, and support staff are all involved. I assign those who aren’t classroom teachers to join a classroom to support the activities on the special event day. This ensures that everyone is part of the activities and helps students build community with all the adults in the building.

When determining how to assign staff to a classroom, I take their skills and interests into account. For example, one of my staff members has an interest in drawing comics, so he was assigned to a classroom during the Day of Reading and supported students with creating their own comics after reading a few. Another staff member enjoys creating music, so on the Day of Art, she helped students create music using Google Chrome Music Lab.

In order to use staff skills and interests, I recommend sending a survey to your staff to ask what skills and/or interests they have that they may be able to share with students. You can do this before each individual special event day or once at the beginning of the year, and then use that information to make assignments.

CHOOSING ALIGNED ACTIVITIES AND PROJECTS

Now that you have a theme, a day, and staff members assigned to classrooms, the last thing to think about is what students will be doing in classrooms throughout the day. To facilitate this, I create and send out a menu of options to my staff that includes ideas for projects or activities that they can choose from.

I make sure the menu is open-ended so teachers can add their own ideas. Once teachers have selected their project or activity from the menu, I facilitate getting materials and any other preparations needed.

I spend time working on the activity menus over the summer when I have more time, but I’ve found AI to be very helpful in coming up with ideas based on the theme and age of students. I will usually just prompt a chat with a query like, “What activities could a fourth-grade teacher lead in a 45-minute class period to celebrate a Day of Art?”

On our Day of Art, some of the menu options included a box cut pop-out activity and a Love Monsters Art Project. I try to choose projects that give staff members the opportunity to bring their own creativity to how they engage their students and the social and emotional connections they want to make.

I send out the menu via Google Docs so that teachers can submit what they plan to do and I can keep track of everything.

Once everything is planned and classrooms have their materials, you’re ready for the special day. Students show up, engage in new experiences and activities, and build community across the school throughout the day.

After the day is done, I send a reflection and feedback form to all staff members to gather insights on the specific projects. Staff members share what went well and what could be improved. These reflections have helped me refine our special event days over the past five years.

THE IMPACT OF SPECIAL EVENT DAYS ON STUDENTS AND STAFF

Dedicating a day to something out of the ordinary isn’t just fun, it has a meaningful, positive impact on students and staff across the school. Students show up excited and spend the day feeling more connected to our school community.

Staff get the chance to try out new ideas in a low-stakes environment, build upon their existing relationships with students, and get to work with other teachers they may not usually get the chance to work with. Plus, teachers get the opportunity to see their students exhibit strengths they may not show during a typical class period.

Hosting a special event day does take some planning up front, but the energy in every classroom is well worth it.