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posted by annebtfe, 2 years ago | 20 comments

Last night my husband, daughter and I attended the back to school picnic for the 6th graders at her new school. It was great to meet these new families and to see our daughter make new friends. To be honest, I think my daughter was more concerned that I make new friends with the mom's than I was for her to make new friends with the kids!

MIDDLE SCHOOL. Who knew it would creep upon us so SOON?

From what I understand from the Box Tops Community at large (you guys!) - it will be a challenge to get the earnings and support that we had in elementary school. But as I search out for the Coordinator at her new school - to offer to help in any way I can - I go over the Tips Sarah and I reviewed at our latest TIPS & TRICKS webinar in my mind:

  1. Set a Goal. - involve your teachers and administrators, find out where the greatest need is, and determine what you will be working toward
    • By setting a goal, you will be able to keep your school community informed of a tangible item to work toward
  2. Keep the School Community Updated of your progress - keep the lines of communication open, remind families that there are 4 different ways they can participate and earn for your school (Clip, Shop, My Class Essentials & Reading Room). Communicate OFTEN. Send fliers home, hold contests, and remind families of the NEED.
  3. Reach out to the Community - are there any local merchants who can "sponsor" a collection contest or who will shop on behalf of the Marketplace for your school? Maybe a merchant who will "match" any funds you get for a collection period?
  4. Be Creative! Have Fun! - Nobody knows your school better than you do; create fliers that are custom for your community - develop contests for families, host "counting" parties to help you get those little box tops bundled and counted, Shop and encourage others to Shop - the Reading Room and Marketplace are your biggest potential earners!
  5. Learn from others - "like" us on Facebook and stay tuned to what is going on in the day and the life of Box Tops. Use the Box Tops Community and get ideas from the thousands of other passionate Coordinators like you. Did you know as Coordinator for your school, you automatically have a "School Community" page on our website JUST FOR YOU To communicate with other school supporters? Stay plugged in to the Box Tops website www.btfe.com for information being updated frequently.

I think most of these ideas can translate to Middle School - The first step is getting to know the other mom's so I can share my knowledge and passion for Box Tops; and the good news is, after 2 hours at the picnic, our whole family walked away with new friends and a bright outlook for the school year ahead.

I'll keep you posted on our progress and will be looking to many of you for your "Middle School" ideas and successes!

 Annie

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at 3/2/2012 7:42 AM said:

We are doing a snowball throwing contest, where the kids earn snowballs for their class by turning in pages of 25 boxtops.

at 2/7/2012 2:56 PM said:

We are doing a snowball throwing contest, where the kids earn snowballs for their class by turning in pages of 25 boxtops. Then, the classroom "throws" the snowball at another class. We use paper snowballs and a chart on our front hallway for the snowballs to land on. Then, the class with the least amount of snowballs wins the Hostess snowball and hot chocolate party. It's a HUGE hit!

at 1/15/2012 6:24 PM said:

Two ideas we are using for our grade school is an ice cream party (complete with Hershey's syrup) for the class that brings in the most Box Tops from January-February and a bubble blowing party on the playground for the class with the most Box Tops brought in from March-April. You can get inexpensive little bottles of bubbles with the wands in them at party stores. We also have a few larger wands that our PTO moms will use to make large bubbles for the kids to chase. As part of the contest, we have our PTO moms chaperone the party so the winning teacher can have a half hour to catch up on grading papers or whatever else they need to do. the teachers have really been encouraging their classes in order to "win" this extra half hour. We also have done a teacher contest where every time a teacher puts a reminder in their newsletter to parents about collecting Box Tops or if they personally bring in 10 Box Tops, then they get an entry into a drawing for a gift certificate to a nice restaurant. This has gone over great and we have seen our weekly collections actually double in the last month that we did this.

at 1/14/2012 6:00 PM said:

I need so new ideas for contest at our school, we have been doing this for 6 years & I'm at a lost for a new idea or two for a contest. Please any suggestion is appreciated :)

at 11/8/2011 7:55 PM said:

I recently ran a free ad in a magazine in Oklahoma requesting box tops. I was overwhelmed when I received almos 1,200 in one week. The letters poured in from people who said they had been collecting them and just didn't know where to send them. It has been amazing!!!! Our school only has 75 students from Pre-k to 12th, so this extra help will really add up for us!

at 10/27/2011 4:36 PM said:

For the last two years twice a year we gave a Webkinz away to one student in each grade, they fill out a form with 10 box tops on each form and that equals one entry! Then besides that the winning grade gets an extra recess..........the kids love that!

at 10/17/2011 5:54 PM said:

This is my second year assisting the BTFE coordinator. The first year, we offered kids individual rewards (mall stickers or otter pops) on specific days to encourage them to bring in Boxtops. We did just okay on that approach. The next year we created a schedule of monthly "bring your boxtops" days,making classrooms compete against each other for the most boxtops brought in, advertised through flyers sent home in backpacks and email reminders and we tripled the amount of Boxtops that were brought in!

at 8/27/2011 11:31 AM said:

I am a new coordinator this year and went through the Box Tops link to the Reading Room at Barnes & Noble. I proceeded to pick out books and they added to my cart. When I went to proceed to checkout my screen froze. I refreshed the screen and got a blank screen. I when to my browser history and re-entered to the page before checkout and re links to my shopping cart that had my books. I proceeded through the checkout process. Apparently they set you up with a temporary membership for 2 months, if you don't have one. The pop-ups tell you that you don't need a membership to proceed? I went through the whole process and got my confirmation that the order went through. After I got the confirmation I expected to see somewhere that I got X number of box tops for my purchase. Wrong! I went through the Box Tops site to see if they showed up there somewhere. No! I contacted Barnes & Noble twice, they redirected me both times to my account settings. There is nothing in my account settings referring to Box Tops. They then tell me that this is a issue with a third party vendor and that I would need to contact them. Well the thing is “Who is the Third Party Vendor”? No help from Barnes & Noble. Now I am going through the blogs to see if anyone else had this issue. I feel that it is a trap to funnel business to Barnes & Noble but they really don't support the program at all. I have already made a retraction to my Intro letter promoting the Reading Room link. I have no choice but put out “Proceed at your own risk” you may not get any boxtops out of the deal. The clincher is the 6 boxtops for every $10. If you are a reader you know that book prices add up fast. What a disappointment!

at 8/4/2011 1:14 PM said:

I also need ideas for contests to motivate students to bring in their boxtops. I was thinking of doing something each 6 weeks or so. Suggestions?

at 4/19/2011 10:06 AM said:

Our school has all the teacher's names listed vertically in the hallway. For each 100 boxtops their class has brought in they get a pink construction paper bar next to their name that says 100 box tops. Those get added next to each other. At the end of the bars is their total so far. One of our teachers so far has brought in over 5,000 box tops from her class alone! Her line of 100 box tops is going down the hallway and around the corner. Believe me, the kids really do pay attention to it and they go home and tell their parents they need to bring in more box tops for their teacher so they can "catch up". Our school has earned well over $2,000 so far this year. Hope this helps.

at 4/18/2011 1:42 PM said:

I need ideas!!! I am having a teacher appreciation contest for the month of May. The classroom who brings in the most BoxTops will be able to keep the money earned. The money can be used for classroom essentials. I need ideas on how to show weekly tallys from the classrooms. Any ideas, is very appreciated

at 3/18/2011 6:26 AM said:

it is really good

at 10/20/2010 6:18 AM said:

hola me gustaria tener mas informacion en espanol para poder informar a quellos padre que como yo no sabemos ingles ..... Gracias por la gran ayuda de nos dan a nosotro los padre y a a las escuela esto ayudara mucho a la educacion de nuestro ninos que son el futuro del mundo de hoy y del que vendra vivian colon

at 10/20/2010 6:17 AM said:

hola me gustaria tener mas informacion en espanol para poder informar a quellos padre que como yo no sabemos ingles ..... Gracias por la gran ayuda de nos dan a nosotro los padre y a a las escuela esto ayudara mucho a la educacion de nuestro ninos que son el futuro del mundo de hoy y del que vendra vivian colon

at 10/13/2010 5:58 PM said:

i hope my school can get a lot of box topd

at 10/8/2010 12:22 PM said:

hello, every1, pta secretary xam once i get the box tops where do i send them?

at 9/30/2010 6:57 AM said:

Can someone please help me how to change the coordinator to myself?

at 9/29/2010 7:53 PM said:

this so cool!!!!

at 9/29/2010 7:53 PM said:

this so cool!!!!

at 9/27/2010 3:47 PM said:

@mom2pandi: have the principal of your school call 1-888-799-2444
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