Custodian Appreciation

National Custodian Appreciation Day was last week and my school invited classes to find ways of thanking our sweet custodians.  The timing worked out perfectly for me because we were in-between writing units and I needed something for the rest of kiddos to work on while the last few finished up their personal narrative stories.  

We started by defining the role of custodians in our school.  Most of the kiddos already know our custodians and generally know that they keep the school clean, but I felt it was important to point out all of the many jobs they take actually on around the building.  After we had a list of things that the custodians do to help us, I sent the kiddos off to write cards.

I was busy meeting individually with kiddos to review their personal narratives, so I didn't see the cards until I collected them at the end of writing time. They turned out so cute!  A couple of kids decided to write about how our custodians are always in the cafeteria to help "fix the tables" -- we are currently using a temporary folding table and it's legs have a tendency to fold under during lunch.   Most of the kids wrote sweet notes thanking the custodians for cleaning, mopping, sweeping, vacuuming, and keeping the school clean so that we can all learn. 

We set the cards up in the Staff Lounge, along with a banner made by one of the 4th grade classes.  I think the custodians got a kick out of reading the kids' writing and knowing they are very appreciated.