How to Build a Homecoming Float

As a teacher you will often be called upon to act as a sponsor for a variety of groups which often represent their clubs through the creation of a homecoming float. Some schools have a parade through town, while others only parade the floats at the homecoming game. Either way, you don't want your float to stand out as the winner of the Ugliest In Show! Following are some handy, simple guidelines to help you get your group's float from inception to tear-down with a minimum of fuss.

First, planning, as with everything in life, is key. Organize a group of workers who are creative, hard workers and trustworthy. It is often good to start by calling together all the class leaders and academics to help get the call to arms out to everyone in the class. You can also poll those kids, who have their fingers of the pulse of the school, to develop your list of students who will specifically solicit for help.

During your first organizational meeting, lay out the rules for your float, the theme and the time frame you will be dealing with. Give your group some time to toss out ideas for float design and students who should be invited to join. When you dismiss, make sure your group knows to spread the information out to their classmates and give them specific dates and times for sign ups to end.

Next, send out a flier or school announcement calling for volunteers. Chances are your goal is to foster school spirit, so you do not want any student who might be interested to feel their help is not wanted. Hold your sign ups and make sure students are aware of the requirements for being selected. For example, when I held sign ups I required my students to have a minimum grade point for the quarter, have no discipline referrals to the office or their academic team, and have a minimum of absences. While I may have eliminated some very creative students, I also gave myself fewer headaches during actual float construction.

Once sign-ups have closed, select your team. I was limited to no more than 20 students, so I sent a "potentials" list out to the teachers on my team who knew the students the best. I wanted to avoid making the students feel that I would only choose my "favorites" and also wanted to make sure I got as many members of my class involved as possible. I counted votes and made my final selections. Some of the students who did not make the cut surprised me and I got the chance to work with students who were in my academic team, but with whom I had not had the chance have in class.

Make sure this group has no more than 3 or 4 "Leaders" who will want to step up and run the show.

After the list is finalized, call the students who are now your crew in for the first real organizational meeting. This may also be your only meeting, depending on the amount of time you have. At this time you should determine the actual design of your float, designate one person to sketch the blueprint, and list the supplies your team will need. You will also need to make sure you have a parent who will volunteer a trailer and truck to pull your float. If you will be creating everything by hand, key supplies will be large paper rolls to cut up into a trailer skirt, scissors, posterboard for signs, PVC pipe, chicken wire (and wire cutters) and tissue. You will want a well-supplied tool box, with hammer, nails, staples/stapler, screwdrivers and a variety of cutting tools. Acrylic and spray paint will also be essential. Conclude the meeting by ensuring students who are responsible for obtaining supplies know what to get, where to get it and any spending limits they may have, obtain contact information and permission slips from all students who will be involved, and set a time to meet again.

You may also want to send some ambassadors out from your crew into the student body to poll for ideas, if you have the time. You can also ask the general population for donation of supplies as some students may want to help, but may not want to actually work on the float. This is how we were able to get the majority of our chicken wire for free!

Be sure your float design is consistent with the homecoming theme and will be easy for your crew to construct. Your costs will be less, in most cases, if you can use natural materials or hand-build much of the scenery, but you may not want your crew handling saws, nail guns or other power tools. If your crew will be using saws, make sure they have stable, secure areas with vice grips, otherwise you may have some serious injuries. If you are constructing from PVC, try to get measurements ahead of time and have them cut down before they arrive at your site.

Our school gives students a week to plan the float and then a single day to build the float (this is why grades was an issue for me as my crew would miss an entire day of instruction). You may find you have time to hold more meetings. However, if you find you are meeting every day, chances are you are micro-managing and borrowing too much stress. Remember, this is supposed to be a fun, community-building activity for you and for your students.

Collect what supplies you are able before the day to build and contact the person or people who will be volunteering your trailer and truck. Make sure the vehicle and trailer will arrive at the time you need them. If you are able to being construction prior to the trailer arriving, do so. For example, my team created a river out of chicken wire and newspaper which we should have constructed before the day when we put the float together. This would have left more time for painting, fitting and securing our river to the trailer. Collecting your materials early leaves you with the ability to collect anything the students were not able to obtain or veto items you think will be dangerous or not work.

Ensure you have ample trash cans and know where the dumpsters or other approved trash sites are. The custodians in your school will probably be willing (and thrilled) to give you trash bags to use in clean up, and may even be a good resource for other supplies, such as paint remover and heavy-duty hand cleaner. They want paint prints all over the school even less than you do!

On the day when construction starts, divide your crew into teams with clear jobs. This will eliminate a lot of the time wasting and will ensure each student gets a real chance to have ownership in the float. You will want to create any signs for your float out of heavy posterboard and same the big banners for places where they will not be caught by wind, for examples, the area behind the cab of the truck and the back of your float. You may need to adjust your design as time goes on or if you find you have under-estimated the amount of supplies you will need. Our float ran out of time to stuff newspaper into the chicken wire to make our river, so we had to use plain paper and saran-wrap to represent some of the water.

Most important at this stage: clean up as you go. As the day wears on, students (and you) will be tired. The less mess left at the end, the easier it will be to keep kids from disappearing (or not showing up after school).

If your parade does not occur immediately after school, make sure your crew knows who will need to come back to school to finish up or ride the float and the time they will need to arrive. Arrange for any costume pieces your float riders (and walkers may need) and arrange to have candy to pass out. Most states and cities now forbid the throwing of candy, but allow walkers to pass candy out to parade-goers. You will need buckets for each walker so they will not need to skip people in their candy delivery.

Once time for roll-out is there, your float will be done and your crew will enjoy a sense of accomplishment, pride and community. At the same time they will have learned valuable lessons of team-building, team work, organization, planning and creativity.