7 Ways Your School Can Celebrate Star Wars Ep. VII #StarWars #TheForceAwakens

The official release date for “STAR WARS: The Force Awakens” is this Friday, December 18th. While you should always be looking for relevant content to post online about your school’s successes, from time to time your social media newsfeed blows up with something out of this world – like Star Wars!

With various Star Wars movies dating back as far as 1977 and most recently 2005, the love for Star Wars spans the generations, virtually guaranteeing its popularity not only at the box office but online as well.

Here are 7 ways to celebrate the release of “Episode VII: The Force Awakens” during Star Wars week at your school (which also coincides with the last day before Christmas break for most schools):

1. HASHTAG: #TheForceAwakens and #StarWars along with your city name hashtag – this ensures you are among the local chatter and may introduce some new fans to your school. By participating in Star Wars week, you demonstrate that you are a part of the social fabric within your community, talking about the things your city is talking about.
2. JIBJAB: This crazy online tool allows you to upload a variety of pictures of your school’s most recognizable faces into a pre-animated video. The funny part of JibJab is watching your school’s famous faces dance in funny ways to holiday jingles. Tie the holiday and Star Wars theme together by uploading pictures of your Head of School, a Kindergarten teacher, and your Choir Director along with Chewbacca and Darth Vader. The results will be hilarious (and something you can easily pull off at the last minute). Click the JibJab photo at the bottom of this post to get started.
3. DUBSMASH: Another quick video app allows you to lip-sync popular songs or movie quotes. Tie the Star Wars celebration with Christmas by either dressing up in holiday gear and lip-syncing famous Star Wars movie quotes, or vice versa. Can you imagine your Upper School principal and head basketball coach lip-syncing Christmas songs while fighting each other with light sabers? They have Christmas-themed songs and a Star Wars theme of familiar quotes. Here’s me (Randy) and two of my kids having fun with Star Wars and Christmas on Dubsmash: https://youtu.be/JNRuFIHhI7E).
4. VIDEO SPOOFS: With a little creative editing, you can create some fun Star Wars spoof videos (even get your students involved with this!) Here’s a Texas police department recruitment video where Darth Vader demonstrates his “force” during his interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNIJ10CWr8Q
5. LIGHT SABERS: Have all the teachers arrive to create a light saber sword entrance for all the students (see sample of a recent wedding where the bride and groom get a memorable light saber exit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/171418329536685537/
6. BB-8: The newest droid everyone will love is BB-8 (for those of us older folks, this is our version of R2-D2) . Make your own BB-8 pumpkin! http://www.thefandom.net/fandom-fun/make-your-own-star-wars-bb-8-pumpkin
7. JAR JAR BINKS IMPRESSION: Have students (or brave staff members) submit a video doing their best Jar Jar Binks impression (depending on your point of view, Jar Jar Binks is the most loved or most annoying character of Episode I, “The Phantom Menace”). Give extra credit to those who incorporate the iconic scrolling opening text crawl sequence made famous by Star Wars. Here’s a sample of a young man doing his impression of Jar Jar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYbGnbRBsR0

Because a good Jedi always has a few tricks up his sleeve, here are 7 bonus ideas (hey, it’s Episode VII so I couldn’t help myself). Don’t worry, I used “the force” to help me create them:

1. FACEBOOK QUIZ: Get some easy engagement on your Facebook page by quizzing your social media audience or asking simple polling questions (i.e., “Which Star Wars movie was your favorite?”)
2. STAR WARS CUPCAKES: Make StormTrooper cupcakes (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/208150814004615307) or Chewbacca cookies (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/49258189651703963/)
3. MOVIE POSTER: Make your own parody Star Wars promotional posters with notable people on campus (coaches, teachers, seniors). Here’s a sample of how some people took to offering a parody of the new Star Wars movie poster  http://time.com/4101866/fans-recreate-star-wars-posters
4. MUSIC: John Williams composed the Star Wars theme music – but he also created Christmas albums, too – play those in the hallways or at lunch – here’s a “Joy to the World” from the same conductor of the Star Wars theme
5. STAR WARS SNOWFLAKES: In the spirit of the winter season, maybe some of the lower school kids could make these fun decorations: http://www.wired.com/2013/12/star-wars-paper-snowflakes/
6. DARK SIDE DANCE: Invite your students to have a one time “Go to the Dark Side” moment. Set up your gym, library or a classroom in a pitch black setting with some glow sticks (aka Light Sabers) and fun music . . . they’ll have as much fun as Jabba the Hut from this scene!
7. PR-MEDIA: Invite local media to come to your school to cover any of the special events above ; they will be looking for local people celebrating the movie premier. Use the #StarWars and #TheForceAwakens hashtag (see #1 tip in first list of seven ideas) and tag your favorite news personalities on Twitter. This would be a great way to get the media’s attention!

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