It’s a silly thing. I know it, and yet I’ve kept a “Great Effort” ribbon suspended in my cubicle for over five years. Why? Well, the truth is the ribbon reminds me of a fun memory. Wouldn’t it be great if students kept their end-of-the-year awards for five years? I can’t be sure whether the end-of-the-year awards I presented to my students even made it home, but if I were a betting gal, I’d say they did. The awards themselves were not extraordinary. The memory associated with each award is what made it special. Some years I gave the awards out on the last day of school. Sometimes I sprinkled award presentations throughout the final days. In either case, each child was recognized for a unique characteristic and/or contribution from the school year. We applauded. We giggled. Sometimes we even moaned over our fond school year memories!
Did you know MyMAILBOX (that’s the free online resource from The Mailbox) has several end-of-the-year awards that you can program online and print in color or black-and-white? And it’s all free! If you want my two cents, I say this is a great starting place for your end-of-the-year award celebration!
Have a great day!
Diane
PS: Just in case anyone is curious how I earned my ribbon, I’ll simply say it had to do with swing dancing and leave it at that! 🙂
I will certainly use the Mailbox awards. We would love to hear more about your swing dancing award. I too have awards I won throughout my school years so long ago.
Most local restaurants have achievement or perfect attendance awards that they will give you if you ask. Most awards benefit the restaurants because they give free appetizers or kid’s meal if you purchase an adult entree. I love to see how many I can get to give out to my class. Sometimes they even throw in a free teacher meal for you!
I have been searching for some particular awards to hand out to my kindergartners on graduation day. I have not found any stores that carry anything like what I have been looking for. I have been able to find them on Mailbox. Thank you!