The first thing to do as Room Mom is to find out what your teacher would like for you to help with and who your moms are, how to contact them and what they want to do this year!  Assume they want to help unless they tell you otherwise.  Don't be afraid to contact moms to ask for their input and help.  We all want Winstead and our child's class to be the best!  Sometimes we can help, and sometimes we can't...don't ever take it personally!

    See the "Teacher Survey of Room Mom Responsibilities" form.

    See the "First Letter of the Year" form. 
        * Notice that this form includes asking parents to give their information for a class list!
             Prepare your class list to distribute to all class parents.  This list should only include
             parents who have agreed to be on the list (see form).  This list will help parents to know
             who is in the class as well as what their parents' names and contact information is.

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You are responsible for working with the teacher to schedule classroom Volunteers if she needs you to.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call us.  Someone more experienced may be able to offer you suggestions!

    See the "Volunteer Sign-up" form. 
        * This is the form to have at Back-to-School Social/Night for parents to fill out in the classroom!

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You will organize the Class Parties.  You can use the "Class Party Sign-up" form to help let your parents know what parties they signed up for and who else has signed up with them!  It is helpful for moms with more than one child in school to be able to schedule (early on) the parties they will attend with each of their children!

    See "Class Party Sign-up" form.
        * Once the form is filled out, make copies and distribute to all the class moms for their reference!

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Teacher Gifts.  I'll start by requesting that you please be flexible when you approach this.  We are trying to get away from Room Moms feeling pressure to collect a set amount of money up front - especially at the beginning of the year when misc. fees and major fund-raising efforts are required!  But we are not in any way discouraging you from purchasing big gifts with collected funds.  Please remember to stick to your teacher's wish list so that classroom parents feel they are contributing to something that the teacher really wants and/or needs!  This will help you to feel confident in choosing and organizing a group gift!

We want everyone to enjoy the gift-giving process and to not feel pressure about participating in or organizing a group gift.  Also, the money collected over the year for group gifts does not have to equal $20/student.  As students and their parents give to the teacher through supply donations, lunches and other little trinkets, many parents are spending a lot more than $20 on their teacher!  

In the past, the three main events were Birthday, Christmas and End of Year.  If your teacher's birthday is in the summer, you may either skip that event or you may want to organize a "Get the Year Started Right!" basket or gift certificate for items on their wish list!?  We all give to our teachers in so many ways.  Let's keep it positive, and when we do, I believe, at Winstead we will see the teachers blessed far beyond any gift we could ever give! 

    See "Teacher's Favorites" form.

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Class WREATHS (click to see examples) will again be donated by each class as an addition to our Scholastic Book Fair Fund-Raiser!  They will be due some time in the first of December.  You can begin soliciting help, ideas and supplies from the parents now!  Contact us if you cannot find anyone in your classroom that remembers/knows about last year's WREATHs!  They were wonderful, and it helped us raise an additional $3,000+ toward PTO fund-raising efforts!

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The most important thing to remember is that being the Room Mom means being a vital source of information to the parents in your classroom.  The responsibilities listed above are easy to coordinate if you establish good communication with your parents early on.  And as always, ASK if you don't know!  Have fun!