The Best Ideas for Parent Volunteers in the Classroom

If there is one thing I’ve learned in almost 20 years of being a teacher, it’s how to utilize volunteers in the classroom. As a new teacher, I never asked for volunteers. In fact, I avoided it. Having my students’ parents in the classroom made me nervous and I really didn’t know the best way to utilize them.

But oh how things change! One day I realized that having parents willing to help is an amazing gift that should be accepted with gratitude. Not only that – it’s quite okay to ASK for help. Don’t know exactly how? Read on for ideas for parent volunteers in the classroom and how they can make your job easier:

.

How to Recruit Parent Volunteers

I have found that the very best time to line up helpers is at the beginning of the school year – even before the first day of school. Meet The Teacher or Back to School Night is the perfect opportunity to encourage parent involvement.

Be sure to set up a “Help Wanted” station with signup sheets for anyone who is interested and a list of volunteer opportunities that may come up throughout the year. In your student information folders, always include the background check form that most schools require of in-school volunteers.

⏬ Download this free volunteer form from the Free Resource Library.

Another great opportunity to recruit classroom help is at your Open House event. The parents who show up are interested in their child’s education and the school community, and most likely, they want to be supportive. This is the perfect time to request help with specific things. Put out a volunteer calendar with dates marked when you can use a helping hand. Be sure to include more of those background check forms.

Once the school year is under way, it’s a good idea to send home a volunteer letter at the start of each grading period letting families know what special events are coming up and how they can help.

If you have access to an online program like Signup Genius, go ahead and include a link where parents can sign up for a time slot. This really helps prevent random parents from showing up to help without notice which can be a disruption to you and your class.

If you find yourself needing help with a last minute task, an email blast usually does the trick. It can be something as simple as this…

“Hi, awesome first grade parents! Our Scholastic Book Club order just arrived today and the kids are super excited to get their new books. But we’re really busy getting ready for test week, so I’m looking for someone who can pop in for a few minutes and sort these books for me. It won’t take much time, I promise!”

You will almost always get a couple of takers if parents know what you need help with and how long it will take.

➡️ Teacher Tip – I have found that I get the best response by asking for help with something specific rather than just a general invitation to come assist during the school day.

.

Ideas for Parent Volunteers in the Classroom

Once you have a few parents excited to help out, start making a list of jobs they can take off your plate. Delegating some of these tasks will make a huge difference in your stress level and free up more of your own time for lesson plans, working with students, and the other important things teachers do.

Here are some creative ways to use parents as volunteers in the classroom:

Bulletin Boards

One thing that takes up a lot of time for a classroom teacher is switching out bulletin boards. If you like to hang student work or change your boards to match the seasons, holidays, or specific academic topics, you can easily assign a volunteer to take care of it for you.

➡️ Teacher Tip – If you plan to reuse the same bulletin board display next year, have your volunteer take a picture of it before taking it down and putting the pieces in a large zip-loc bag or envelope. Later, print the picture and attach it to the front of the bag. Next year it will be easy peasy for someone to hang it back up in the exact same way!

.

Working With Students

Why not use your regular volunteers to improve student achievement? It doesn’t take a master’s degree to listen to students read aloud or help them learn math facts or sight words. Your volunteers can also work with small groups by supervising a game, facilitating a science experiment, or assisting younger students with a craft activity.

.

I think working directly with individual students is one of the best ideas for parent volunteers in the classroom because it directly impacts student success!

Housekeeping

When I say housekeeping, I’m not talking about cleaning. I mean all the little daily tasks that keep a classroom running smoothly. If you have volunteers who come in regularly, they can handle many of these things:

• Homework check in – collecting and checking off who completed the assignment
• Mailboxes – sorting completed work into student mailboxes
• Student folders – filling take-home with students’ work and papers at the end of the day
• Running errands – to the office, media center, lunchroom, etc.
• Assembling booklets, work packets, etc.
• Classroom library – tidy up, return books to their proper bins, patch up torn pages or covers
• Making copies
• Cleaning out used up supplies like dried markers, glue without caps, broken crayons, etc.

.

Special School Events

Throughout the school year, there are plenty of special projects and events when an extra set of hands and eyes are extremely valuable. Consider asking your parent helpers to come help with class parties, field day, the book fair, career day, or your awards ceremony.

All of these days are hectic and full of excitement. Young children may need extra help remembering the rules and following directions. Having a few more adults on hand goes a long way toward making everything run smoothly. And don’t forget about field trips – the more chaperones you have, the easier your trip will be (especially in the lower grade levels)!

.

Guest Readers

Another great way to utilize volunteers is by inviting them in as guest readers. I love doing this because:

• Reading aloud to children build their vocabulary and comprehension skills
• Kids are more focused when listening to a new person speaking or reading
• Having a guest reader frees you up to complete other tasks for a few minutes

.

.

.

Classroom Clean Out

Think about all of the things that must get done before the last day of school. Taking down bulletin boards, emptying shelves, cleaning student whiteboards – these are all time-consuming tasks that can be handled by classroom volunteers. The end of the year is busy and teachers end up doing many of these jobs during post-planning. Save yourself a ton of time by asking a few parents to handle them for you.

Some other ideas for the last week of school:

• clean out all the broken crayons and dried up markers
• pack up your classroom library
• collect and sort textbooks
• remove labels from cubbies and mailboxes
• return materials to the media center

.

Moving classrooms? Well parent volunteers can be your best friends!

.

Ideas for Parent Volunteers Who Want to Help From Home

Most parents work full-time and have busy schedules, but many of them are still very willing to help their child’s teacher. The good news is that there are numerous ways busy parents can be involved outside of regular school hours. Here are some tasks that can be completed at home:

Class Website

If you have a website for your class, why not ask a tech savvy parent to help maintain it? Things like adding dates to the calendar or updating your weekly spelling list are easy tasks for someone to handle.

.

Prepping Materials

Think about all of the cutting, hole punching, and stapling you do throughout the year. Talk about a lot of work! Next time you have a pile of booklets to fold or packets to staple together, try sending them home for a volunteer to work on.

➡️ Teacher Tip – When sending materials home to a parent volunteer, be sure to include a sticky note with brief instructions and a completed example to show what the finished product should look like.

.

Party Planning

Many teachers set time aside once a month for birthday celebrations. You might also have classroom parties for holidays like Halloween or Thanksgiving.

Instead of trying to handle it all yourself, recruit a volunteer to be your room parent. Whoever plays this important role traditionally serves as the contact point person for special events. This includes emailing or calling the other parents to coordinate the food and drinks and line up extra hands to come in and help on party day.

.

Other Ideas for Parent Volunteers With Special Skills

Sometimes class parents have a specific skill set or talents that can be helpful in the classroom.

Maybe Sally’s mom is a fantastic photographer. Invite her to come take the pictures during your next big event. If Johnny’s dad has a green thumb, ask him to help start a vegetable garden during your unit on plants. Parents who speak foreign languages can make a valuable contribution by translating your newsletter for your families of English language learners.

Don’t be afraid to ask parents about their hobbies and special skills on your volunteer information form!

A Final Tip

Now that you have some new ideas for parent volunteers in the classroom and know how to ask for some much-needed support, get ready for a more productive year with a lot less stress! But here’s one last tip to get the most out of your helpers: 

Keep an ongoing to-do list posted in the classroom that volunteers can refer to. Some days are just hectic and you won’t have time to stop and instruct a parent on what to do. If the tasks on your list require certain materials, be sure to list them. Make it easy for your volunteers to come in and get right to work. If a parent comes in on the same day each week, have a special list just for them of jobs they can do on a regular basis. This is the kind of volunteer help that will change your year. 

Finally, don’t forget to thank your special helpers for their hard work. A small token of appreciation at the end of the school year is important. After all, these people have given up their own free time to help YOU out. A handwritten note and small gift card is all it takes.

.

What if you don’t have any classroom volunteers?

Yep, this has actually a happened to me more than once in past years. If none of your students’ parents express an interest in helping, even after you’ve asked, a great resource in your school’s PTA. Most parent-teacher associations have a lot of parent volunteers – often more than they can use. Your PTA is bound to have someone eager to come in and lend a helping hand.

Another great way to find help is through your local college. If there’s an education program (early childhood, teacher training, even daycare certification), there will be students looking to get volunteer hours and gain educational experience. Check with your school administrator because sometimes there’s already a program in place for college students and half the work may already be done for you.