SCHOOL SPIRIT & INVOLVEMENT GUIDE

There is something about school spirit that is pure magic. It is hard to explain to others, but the feeling of a united and spirited student body is simply amazing. We have included some school spirit ideas and tips for involvement. Each school has their special traditions and “spirit sparking” ideas that make them unique. It is totally okay to borrow a good school spirit idea and tweak it to make it your own. Please try some of the “spirit sparkers” provided in this site and share some of your very own ideas.

  School Spirit Promotion Ideas

    Poster Slogans

    Spirit Signs

    Yard Spirit Signs

    Spirit Poster Ideas

    Publicity

  School Spirit Decorating Tips

    Big Time Banner

    Spirit Fence

    Decorating with Balloons

  School Spirit Traditions

    Spirit Nation Club

    Fan Involvement Tips

    End of Game Tradition

    Pre Game Rally & Traditions

    School Spirit Songs, Cheers, and Chants

    Senior Gift

    VIP Seating

School Spirit Promotion Ideas:

Poster Slogans: Displaying posters and signs at an athletic event is a great way to recognize athletes and promote school spirit. The more creative your poster, the larger impact it will have. Try to use school colors when designing your sign. Maker sure your signs are appropriate and promote good sportsmanship. Click here for a list of school spirit slogans.

Spirit Signs: Handheld spirit signs are a great visual for fostering school spirit. These spirit signs can be used at sporting events and rallies. As part of the rally competitions, you can reward points to the class who has the most and best spirit signs. When done correctly spirit signs can transform a gymnasium into a hub of spirit. The same is true for sporting contests. Handheld signs, such as the ones with the letter “D” and a picture of a fence (de-fense), are a great way to get the crowd involved. The best cheer squads at sporting events always use handheld signs to get the crowd involved. If you go to any major college football game, you will see cheer and yell leaders leading the crowd via handheld signs. UCLA does a great job of using signs to get their fans to do their well storied “8-Clap”. Just about any home office store sells foam board which is great for handheld signs.

Yard Spirit Signs: Yard signs are a great way to promote events and school sprit throughout the community. You can build your own, or have a sign company make signs and have students place them throughout our the community and in their yards on the day of a game.

More Promotion Tips:

  Publicity

  Spirit Poster Ideas

Photo Bulletin Board Fundraiser & Spirit Promoter

School Spirit Decorating Tips:

Big Time Banner: We all make posters for the big game or event on campus. A good way to mix it up is to make a super-sized banner that shouts school spirit. Make 4 ft. PVC pipe posts (4 in total). Make bases to support the PVC pipe posts. Spread the posts out to a desired length and make banners that fit. By using the PVC pipes and bases you can make very large and long posters that are true attention grabbers. Plus the bases and pipes are portable and you can move them around your campus. All too often, we concentrate all of our publicity in one spot, to the point where students do not recognize it anymore. Changing up locations is a great way to arouse spirit.

Spirit Fence: Decorate your chain link fences with your school colors. Paint Styrofoam cups with your school colors, and place them through the holes in the chain link fence at your stadium. You can spell our your school name, slogans etc. This is a easy and great way to add spirit to your bleachers.

Decorating with Balloons: Using balloons are a great way to show off your school colors and school spirit. On the day of your football game tie balloons with your school colors all around your school so the students and parents know that there is a big game that evening. You can also get custom printed balloons with your school name, or have them print "big game tonight".

School Spirit Traditions:

Each school has their own spirit traditions that make them unique. It can be anything from having your crowd chant something every time your team scores to your band playing your fight song at every pep-rally. School spirit traditions should be carried on from year to year and include your pep squad, band and most importantly your fans. Here are a few suggestions we have put together for you:

"Spirit Nation" Tradition:

A few years back my school hosted a playoff basketball game versus Peninsula High School. Peninsula’s students came out in droves to the big game, which was abut 70 miles away from their home. I had never seen a more enthusiastic and quite frankly bizarre group of rooters in my life. Every Peninsula student came to the game dressed in elaborate costumes, and had pre-made chants for all the different situations that occur in a basketball game. After the game, I spoke with their activities director and asked him how they created such a spirited group and how could I get my crowd to be that way. After speaking with him for about a half hour my mind was filled with various steps on how I could start a “Spirit Nation” for our school.

First, I held a luncheon with all of the varsity sports athletes. Together with or athletic director, we communicated the importance of supporting one another’s teams.

We told the varsity athletes that they are the most recognizable faces on campus, and if they exuded school spirit so would everyone else.

We developed a calendar of the big events for the school year. Prior to all these events we had some sort of community building activity (pizza feed before a game at a restaurant).

We created prizes for the most spirited fan at all the contests.

We elected a president to coordinate themes / activities for the big games.

We spent time rehearsing chants and developed our own identity.

Creating a “Spirit Nation” requires a lot of preparation and a lot of lunches with free pizza. Our “Spirit Nation” grew into one of the most popular groups on campus. Going to a game became a lot more fun and spirited. I would like to say we rival Peninsula, but we still have a little ways to go. Now I am finding my biggest challenge to be on how to best control the student fans. They get so excited that they forget it is high school competition. As a result, we have established some guidelines for cheering and celebrating. The students have responded well to these guidelines, but they do keep me on my toes.

school spirit guide continues below

Getting Your Fans Involved:

Listed below are some fun ways to get fans excited about the game:

Face paint
 

Body tattoos
 

Colored clown spirit wigs
 

Cheer towels
 

Glow necklaces
 

Team Yells- get a parent to have the fans do a repeat after me cheer
 

Have a pre-game rally
 

Section off a portion of the parking lot and have a tailgating party for fans.

Hire a skydiver to bring in the game ball.

Reserve a student section in the stands.

Have the band lead the fans in an interactive song

Invite the most spirited adult fan down to the field as a special sideline guest for the night.

Form a spirit tunnel from the locker room to the field with fans.

Sell special t-shirts for big games.

Fly a plane with a banner cheering on your team the day of the big game.

End of Game School Spirit Tradition: At the end of each athletic event or pep rally have your band play your schools alma mater or fight song. You can also purchase spirit flags and have your mascot run across the field.

Pre Game School Spirit Tradition: Getting students and fans pumped up for the big game is an essential part of promoting school spirit. Try having a pre game rally 30 minutes before kick off, organizing a tailgate party or having bonfire before the big game. For a successful tailgate party, have your ASB provide free music, food, and sprit gear for all students that attend. Have face painting and contests for the most spirited fan. At a specific time have all the students enter the stadium together and have a student section roped off for them in the bleachers. Make this a tradition that students can look forward to each game.

School Spirit Songs/Cheers/Chants: Start a tradition by always singing the same songs, cheers, or chants at a specific time. For example, when your football team scores a touchdown, have your band play the schools fight song, along with your cheer and mascot doing a special stunt. Also, there are many songs out there with themes. For example, if your schools color is "black" you can always play a song like "Men in Black".

Senior Gift: Have the seniors start a tradition of leaving a “senior gift” behind each year. Depending on how much money you class has fundraised by the time they graduate, they can purchase items for the school such as a new marquee or even small things like planting a tree or buying something for the school with their class year engraved on it.

VIP Spirit Seating:
Prior to each rally, hold a raffle in which students have a chance to sit in a recliner / couch during a football game. Choose three names and then have the students compete for the VIP Spirit seating in a rally competition. The winner of the competition is awarded the VIP Spirit Seating.

more school spirit ideas by asbdirector.com

Pep Rally Spirit:

  Pep Rally Spirit Tips

 Pep Rally Spirit Point System

Spirit Contests:

  Class Competitions

Themed Spirit Weeks and Activities:

  Spirit Challenge - Spirit Week

  Dress Up Days

Use Spirit Merchandise:

  How to Make Face Paint

SHARE YOUR STUDENT ACTIVITY IDEAS

Share your student activity and leadership ideas! This site is intended to be an idea share resource for middle school / high school student body presidents, student councils, activities directors, school advisors and student leaders nation-wide. Tell us how we can make this guide more helpful to you. Send us tips on how we can improve this free online resource or convey us your very own student activities! Please submit your student activity and leadership ideas below!