PTA-Sponsored 'School Exploration!' Dream Project

I am a co-representative of the PTA at a certain elementary school in Kitakyushu City.

The PTA at our school has become a circle-based organization, where activities are undertaken voluntarily by those who can and want to participate.

The biggest feature of our PTA activities is that we have a series of 'fun events' called the 'Dream Project'.

With the motto of 'once every semester,' we are working on these in a fun way with the desire to 'create memories for the children.'

Since we currently have a three-semester system, we prepare three major events per year.

At the end of this article, I will also post some of the things we have worked on so far.

Now, the Dream Project for the second semester this time is 'School Exploration!!'

Our school's name ends with the sound 'ku.'
I linked that to the 'quest' of exploration.

For example, if we were talking about the school of the main character in Slam Dunk, it would be Shohoku High School.
'Shoho Quest'
It's something like that!!!

I heard rumors from the children that the name is lame, but it went in one ear and out the other (lol).
I really like this event name that I muttered jokingly (lol).

Let's refer to it as the tentative name 'Shoho Quest' from here on out.

'Shoho Quest' turns the school,
the very place where children always go and learn, into a world of exploration!!

It is a challenge where they aim for the goal by taking on seven quizzes and trials!!

1. Announcement at the sports festival
2. Distribution of promotional flyers
3. Distribution via the school's official communication tool
4. Re-announcement including promotion of the open chat

With these four rounds of announcements, the number of participants has gradually increased!!

Participation applications are collected with one click using Google Forms. We are making sure it is hassle-free for both teachers and parents. And, it's a way to make it easier to apply!

In PTA activities, the standard method of communication to each household is 'distributing printed materials,' but for example, even to recruit a few participants, you have to prepare prints for all students in the school.
Parents have to make time, go to school, diligently print them on a mimeograph, and sort them by class while checking the number of students... it's a lot of hard work.

Therefore, we have created an 'Open Chat' that allows for anonymous participation.
Since notifications arrive just like a LINE feature, it is very convenient and easy to use.
With the aim of promoting this further, this time,
we decided to release 'example questions' and 'hint bonuses'!

As a result, the number of participants increased rapidly.
Furthermore, I heard that as the event approached, rumors spread through the parents, and the children were looking forward to it.

Examples of questions actually used...

Although these are all questions I hurriedly copied from the internet, I have gathered similar ones!!

The actual questions look like this!!

I am grateful to the parents who put so much effort into creating them!!

The reason is that there are 7 questions, but if everyone solves the same ones, it won't be an exploration. There are 7 questions x 4 colors!

Therefore, we will divide into 4 color groups to solve the problems.

This is the material projected on the slide during the initial explanation on the day of the event.

In this way, you only solve the questions for your own color. For example, if you are on the yellow team, which question is it? => It's (c).

There were 92 registered participants. We prepared enough for 100 people, including those who showed up on the day without registering.

We made a lottery using colored balls. We will create 5 teams for each color. We will create 20 teams in total, 4 colors x 5 teams, such as Red 1 to Red 5, Yellow 1 to Yellow 5. These are 'lottery tickets' made by sticking paper with the team names on the balls.

We also prepared lottery boxes for each grade level so that students from upper grades to lower grades would be mixed just right.

This is the preparation stage. Children from the same team gather around their respective cones.

Since it is an interaction between different grade levels, some children were on teams with others they had never spoken to before. We also saw upper-grade students leading the lower-grade students.

This color-coding strategy was also a great success!

Also, since we cannot have everyone start the exploration at once, which would lead to them solving the same problems or waiting in line, we had them move to their starting locations in advance—such as Group 1 from the first floor, Group 2 from the second floor, etc.—and then started with a school-wide announcement.

And there was also a mechanism to ensure they didn't run. The fastest team isn't necessarily the winner. We also included a twist where the team closest to a secret 'target time' wins!

The children started exploring the whole school all at once. Even though there were so many of them in the gymnasium, once they entered the school building, I wondered where they had all gone. It's interesting.

But still, I can hear cheers coming from all over the place...! (laughs)
It's interesting.

Found it!!
The blue question!!!

Find the question for your color.

Found a question!!
Wait, this is yellow!! (laughs)

It's fun just looking for the questions.

The benefit of joining the open chat was getting 'hints'.
Our PTA has a mascot character, and this character's name was the password.

Before we started, I called out, 'If you know the password, please come to the front!', and I was surprised when a large group of people came forward! (laughs)

On the count of three, say the password!
'Ready, set!'
'[Name]!!!!'
Oh! Perfect!!

Yes, well done. I'll give this to everyone.

Questions scattered all over the school.
I think it was also helpful to know where there weren't any!!

The questions were very creative, ranging from riddles to witty quizzes.
Some were challenge-based, like rearranging matchsticks or placing weights to get exactly 100 grams.

There were also questions like,
What is the name of the first principal? Who wrote the school song? Questions that make you think, 'How would I know that?' (laughs)
But don't worry. There are parents and teachers around acting as 'Hint Men'.
Let's have them secretly give us a hint!

If you succeed in seven quizzes or challenges, you'll be given a letter.
If you rearrange those seven letters, a message will appear.
You can figure it out from this example, right? (laughs)

Once the message emerges, look for the principal or the vice-principal!!
If you whisper the message to the teacher, they will tell you the location of the goal!!

Once you reach that goal, they will time you.

After you finish, please come back to the gymnasium.

Once we returned to the gymnasium, each team took a group photo to commemorate the day.
Having boards like these makes it easy to take photos and helps create a great atmosphere and lasting memories.
These are friends of different ages who happened to be on the same team through a lottery.

Every time a photo was taken, it was sent via LINE, and we worked hard to print them out on the spot.
The printer worked hard too, printing about 100 photos.
We gave everyone a commemorative L-sized photo as a gift.

The familiar school turned into a world of exploration.

I was happy to see the children taking on the challenges so joyfully.

Feedback like, 'I want to do Shoho Quest again!!'

Feedback like, 'I haven't been able to participate in PTA events before, but I definitely want to participate from now on!!'

Feedback like, 'I was happy that the PTA members prepared so much for this event.'

I was very happy.

The children went home with happy memories, souvenir snacks, and a team group photo.
I'm sure that in each home, they are looking back and talking about things like, 'There was this kind of problem,' 'I became friends with this child,' and 'It was this kind of event!'

Also, this project was only possible thanks to the participation of many parents and teachers, such as those who acted as hint-givers, those who provided the correct answers, and those who watched over the challenges.
It was wonderful to be able to run this project with everyone.
It was truly great to be able to operate this project together with everyone.

It is a simple event project that doesn't cost much in terms of budget.
It is content that can be implemented at any school.

I posted the details thinking it might be a good reference for many schools.

Shoho Quest was so much fun!!
I think it would be great to make it an annual event!!!

It was so much fun!!!

Thank you for watching today as well.
Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read this article.

Please also take a look at the details of our previous projects here!!