static1.squarespace.com · Web viewIn short, we’ve tried to do all the planning and thinking for you. Although the main goal for this boost is to simply show appreciation, we sprinkled

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Staff Appreciation Week PacketIt’s here!

We’ve provided emails, print outs, themes, decorations… everything you need for a great week.

This packet will give you a great start, though feel free to edit, customize, and truly make it your own. In fact, as we prepare these, we keep in mind that these work best when the staff believes you are the one who put in the time and energy to create all this yourself. We don’t want this to come off as some pre-produced package. So go ahead and take the credit, we won’t tell if you won’t.


Instructions

The idea is to make it easy on you to pull off a fantastic week. There is a lot in here, but you are free to use as much or as little of this packet as you wish.

For each day of the week, we’ve created themes, decorations, morning and afternoon emails with optional contests, and instructions for how to provide treats for the day. In short, we’ve tried to do all the planning and thinking for you.

Although the main goal for this boost is to simply show appreciation, we sprinkled in other, subtle, team building goals too. By the end of the week, you should look back and feel that not only was there appreciation, but that you furthered your overall feeling of a school community and family.

Our programs strive to require as little effort and budget on your part as possible, but because of the nature of Staff Appreciation Week, we can’t do the extras and treats for you. However, we do give you suggestions for keeping things simple and expenses to a minimum, and we’ll put your biggest effort right up front on Monday morning. We’ve had schools say they didn’t spend a dime because they had someone call around to the community beforehand and had the breakfast, snacks, and coffee all donated.

Don’t feel overwhelmed. Here’s how to proceed:

1. Print out and read through this packet. Make notes on the different days with your ideas and customizations.

2. Invite two or three people to be your assistants to help pull this off. Pick people who naturally love party planning, not necessarily your standard assistants if they won’t enjoy it. You can call this group your “Staff Week of Appreciation Gang,” or SWAG for short. Delegate out the different days to these assistants. Maybe assign one person to do Monday and Wednesday, and another to do Tuesday and Thursday (Friday is Co-Worker Appreciation Day and runs by itself). Hand them the corresponding day pages with your notes and tell them to have fun with it and wow everyone.

3. When the week arrives, come back to this file to copy and paste the emails we’ve provided for you. For each day’s email we’ve provided optional contests to keep the days interesting. These are fun and can be used as an opportunity to hand out prizes. Prizes could be anything from casual dress days, to grab bags (think, “All winners come to the office so you can pick out one item from the prize bag!”), to candy bars. It’s up to you and your creativity. They don’t have to be anything big. If you choose not to do the daily contests, simply delete them form the email before sending.


Notes: For several of the days, we refer to the Staff’s Lounge or break room, but if you don’t have a “lounge,” feel free to designate any area in your place that might work. We’ve also used “Staff Appreciation Week,” though you can change it to “Teacher Appreciation Week” if that is what your school recognizes.


Theme Schedule

Monday: Our Staff is Out of This World!

Tuesday: Gratitude with Attitude

Wednesday: What’s All the Buzz around Here?

Thursday: Working With You All Is SWEEEET!

Friday: Co-Worker Appreciation Day

We’ve provided emails, posters, and ideas for each day’s theme, but you can also dress up each day for each theme. Example: Tuesday’s theme is about attitude, so you could dress up like a rock star.


Pre-week Email

(Copy/Paste/Edit, and send to everyone the prior Friday afternoon or over the weekend)

Hello Everyone,

Get ready.

Staff Appreciation Week 2017 has arrived and I plan for this to be my excuse to express just how much I appreciate all of you.

I have ideas and themes planned for each day of the week to keep us entertained. To kick things off, and because I heard it was the most important meal of the day, I’ll be providing breakfast Monday morning.

(you can enter details here. Time, Place, etc…)

Come early, bring your appetite, and prepare to be appreciated!

See you then!


Monday

Theme: Our Staff is Out of This World!

Monday Instructions:

We want to start the week off with a “big bang”, so we’ve planned for this breakfast to be where you put the most effort all week. Feel free to wow them, although know whatever you can manage will be appreciated. There’s no need for a formal sit-down breakfast unless you just want to. Having a buffet where they can come pick out what they like and start their day will work just fine. They’ll appreciate the effort and special treat. Of course, with all that said, if you can make it big and amazing and have fun with it, that’s all the better.

1. Try contacting Chik-fil-A or other local restaurants. Often if you tell them it’s Teacher Appreciation Week, they will donate or provide discounts. Other than that, we’re sure you know how to put together a breakfast bar: scrambled eggs, muffins and bagels, fruit, juice, ask the PTA for a potluck, or let your inner gourmet chef loose.

2. Print out the “Our Staff is Out of This World” posters from the Printouts File and hang them around the breakfast. For each day we provide different signs and you can print out several copies of each. But obviously these don’t have to be the only decorations. Have fun with it and make it your own. The little extras are often what people remember.

Morning Email:

Houston, we have a problem…

Our staff is out of this world and I want to award some prizes but I need a reason to give them out. So here’s a quick joke contest. Fill in the blank with any phrase you like and email it back to me. The funniest or maybe most touching will win a prize.

Our staff is so out of this world!

How “out of this world” are they?

Our staff is so out of this world, they ________________ .

That’s it. Email me your submissions and winners will be announced at the end of today.

Staff Appreciation Week 2017 is blasting off! Be sure to enjoy our breakfast to kick off the week with a “big bang!”

Thank you all!


Afternoon Email:

Prepare yourselves, because Staff Appreciation Week has taken off and I’m just getting started.

Thank you all for everything you do around here, and get ready, because tomorrow will be an entirely new day and new theme.

Here are some winners from today’s joke contest. You all CRACKED ME UP! If your submission is listed below, you’ve won! Come by the office for a prize.

(list winners and their submissions below)


Tuesday

Theme: Gratitude with Attitude

Tuesday Instructions and Lounge Setup:

1. The theme is Gratitude with Attitude, so feel free to go all out. Provide snacks with attitudes: sour patch kids, red hots, salsa and chips, energy drinks, fireballs, Cheetos, and any other snacks you consider have “attitude.” Making funny signs next to the snacks is fun too.

2. Print out the provided decorations and put them up along with any other decorations you want.

3. If you can, put on some rock and roll music and pump up the attitude!

Morning Email:

Welcome to Staff Appreciation Week, Day 2: Gratitude with Attitude!

Throughout the day we’ll be providing “aggressive” snacks in the Staff’s Lounge. Come by and rock out!

I’ve also got another game for us today with prizes. If there’s one gesture in our culture that says, “We rock!” it’s not the handshake, fist bump, head nod, wink, or European double cheek kiss. No, no. It is, and always has been, the high five.

Thus, I’ve assigned one member on staff to be my Secret High Five Cool Cat, and if you high five this person today, you win a prize. And as a special bonus, if this person also spots you “perambulating to the max” (in other words doing your best strut), you could be the winner of today’s grand prize.

So let’s strut our stuff in the hallways and let the high fives fly, because you never know who might be watching!

I’ll leave it at that for now. Come by and enjoy some aggressive snacks throughout the day.

Contest Notes: It’s easy. Pick out one person to be your “Secret High Five Cool Cat.” The only thing this person has to do is not specifically seek out high fives, but don’t turn them down either. If they want to, they can keep a list of people who high fived them, or you can skip the list and just do it by the honor system. Expect that many people might win this prize, so it doesn’t have to be anything big. Your secret person can also be in charge


of selecting the best strutter for another prize, and if they can get a video of it, you can share that video at the end of the day.

Tuesday’s Creative Attitude Compliments:

In the Printouts File, you’ll find the creative compliments with four per page. These are over 60 humorous compliments. Print them and cut them out and then what you do with them is up to you. You can put them into staff’s boxes, hand them out randomly as you walk around, or go from room to room and hand them out. You can think about who you want to give each one and then write the staff’s name on it, or not.

These compliments are a subtle way for you to step out of the usual boss/subordinate relationship, and touch on the more humorous, personal level.

Afternoon Email:

Thank you all for another great day!

Guess what, ___________ was our Secret High Five Cool Cat! If you high fived him/her, come to the office for a prize. And we all thought that _________________ had the best strut down our halls today, so there’s a prize for him/her too.

Tomorrow is Day 3 of Staff Appreciation Week and we will have an all new theme: “What’s the Buzz around Here??” We’ll be supplying all your caffeine and energy needs throughout the day to get you over the mid-week hump. So come in early and enjoy some great coffee, tea, and other energy boosts!


Wednesday

Theme: What’s the Buzz around Here?

Wednesday Lounge Setup:

1. Today is all about caffeine and energy. Print out the provided decorations and put them up along with any decorations you come up with. Provide caffeine and energy drinks and snacks. Often a local coffee shop or chain will be willing to donate coffee for Teacher Appreciation Week if you ask. You can also do tea, Red Bull, Gatorade, trail mix, energy bars, fruit, etc…

2. Print out the “New Mission!” sign from the end of the printout file and display it in the lounge. It might be helpful to print out several copies, or even print out enough to put in staff’s boxes, hand out, or hide around the school. We suggest using grade levels and departments as teams, but you can change that up if you wish.

Morning Email:

Welcome to Staff Appreciation Week, Day 3: What’s All the Buzz around Here?! Throughout the day our lounge will be your source for all your caffeine and energy needs. We have coffee (if you had a coffee shop donate, you can insert “from” and their name here), an assortment of teas, energy drinks, sports drinks, etc… Come by and re-energize!

And today’s contest? All this extra caffeine might give you the energy to do something extraordinary. If it does, get someone to snap a picture of you doing it and email it to me with a caption. The best pictures will win.

Afternoon Email:

Thank you all for another great day!

Tomorrow is Day 4 of Staff Appreciation Week and we will have an all new theme, but I’ll hold off until tomorrow to announce it.

Hopefully everyone made their way to the caffeine and energy today and saw your new mission. If not, here it is again:

New Mission!


Let’s all get into the act and show some thanks for each other on Friday and make it a fantastic Cinco de Mayo Co-Worker Appreciation Day! Each grade level or department can come up with something special to do for your co-workers on Friday using everything Mexico to inspire you. You could bring in snacks, write poems, or come up with something way better and more creative. There’s no telling what you all will come up with. And of course, I might have something special for the team that impresses the most…

As for today’s contest, I think these pictures speak for themselves….

(Paste the picture submissions from today below with the captions. Highlight the one you chose to be the winner.)


Thursday

Theme: Working With You All is SWEEEET!!

Thursday Lounge Setup:

1. Print out the decorations and hang them along with any decorations of your own.2. This one is straightforward. Cookies, brownies, rice crispy treats, etc… If you

want, you can do morning treats like cinnamon rolls and then switch it to cookies and candy bars later in the day. Maybe ask different people or parents if they want to make homemade treats and bring them in for the buffet. It’s up to you and how much time/effort you can put into it.

3. (Optional) Two Words: Chocolate Fountain.

Morning Email:

Staff Appreciation Week. 2017. DAY 4!

Every single day I arrive here I think to myself, “Working with you all is so SWEEEEET!” The only thing I can compare it to is a huge buffet of sweet treats and desserts. And that’s just what we’ve got in store for you today. Stop by and enjoy!

And don’t forget to keep thinking about what your team can do for our Cinco de Mayo Co-Worker Appreciation Day tomorrow. I think it will be nice for all of us to get into the fun. I can’t wait to see what you all do!

Today’s contest: Think back over this past year and try to remember something sweet that someone else did for you. If you want them to be recognized for it, then email me a description of what they did and how it made you feel.

And once again, thank you all for everything you do!

Personal Compliments:

You’ve done quite a bit this week to show appreciation to the group, but it’s good to take some time to deal with your individuals. We encourage you during this day to try to share just a few sincere comments with every teacher or staff member, whether it’s in the hall or being methodical and going room to room and asking for a quick word. Your conversation can start as easily as this:


“Joe, I just want to let you know that I appreciate what you’re doing around here. (Mention something specific, like the work they’ve done for a program or group, or just that the students love them, or whatever you can think of.) Thank you for your efforts. Is there anything I can do to help or support you more? “

It might seem silly at first, but taking this face to face time, being sincere, and approaching with a genuine attitude to see if there is anything you can do for them, will go a LONG way for them feeling appreciated and building trust, and that’s why we wanted to include this as part of your week. Perhaps bring a checklist so you can make sure you’ve talked to everyone, and a pad so you can write down their suggestions. Seeing you record their comments and take it seriously will also be well received.

If you have a very large group, this might be something you wish to start earlier in the week so you can do some each day.

Afternoon Email:

Thank you all for another great day! It was SWEEEET!

I heard about so many sweet things today. And I know that none of these were done expecting any type of recognition or reward, but the people you affected want you to be recognized, so here are just some of the sweet things that have gone on here this year:

(Copy and paste the descriptions of the sweet things the staff sent you today. There is no need to pick a winner, as none of these were done in hopes of a prize, and it could be seen as a little tacky to give a prize for this type of thing. But the recognition is nice.)

Tomorrow is our last day of Staff Appreciation Week, 2017. All good things must come to an end, but I have a feeling tomorrow might be the best day yet. It will be all of our efforts to make a great Cinco de Mayo Co-Worker Appreciation Day. It should be great! And remember, there will be a special award for the team that impresses the most!

Thank you all!


Friday

Theme: Co-Worker Appreciation Day!

Lounge Setup:

Nothing! After a week of having you provide treats, most staffs are going to appreciate the opportunity to do for others for a day.

Morning Email:

It’s Cinco de Mayo Co-Worker Appreciation Day! Who knows what everyone has in store!?! Feliz Cinco de Mayo!!!

Afternoon Email:

I want to thank all of you for such a wonderful day! Let me list some of the things that really caught my eye:

(type in some of the special activities you saw the teams do today)

And I did say I would reward a team who I thought really went above and beyond, so that award will go to (insert team) and I would like to give them (insert prize).

On a serious note, this week was my opportunity to carve out time to express my thanks and appreciation for all of you. It’s you all and your collective efforts that make this place special, and it’s my honor to work along with you. Thank you all.


Optional Staff Appreciation and Prize Ideas

Feel free to incorporate as many of these as you wish.

Papa John’s or other pizza places will often donate during Staff Appreciation Week if you ask. You could use this one day in the lounge or have it delivered as an after school snack.

Hire a massage therapist to do 3-minute chair/back massages. This might be good on Wednesday when it’s all about re-energizing.

“Put Yourself In Their Shoes” If you have a few minutes, offer to take over a class for 10 minutes so the staff can go enjoy the snacks or whatever you have prepared for that day. You can’t do it for everyone, but word will get around about your effort.

Get the students involved. Make an announcement that it’s Staff Appreciation Week and that you have placed a box in the office where students can place comments and notes about cool things the teachers have done for them this year. The comments can be anonymous or not. At the end of the week, go through them and type up some of the best and send it out as an email so everyone can see. (Sure, depending on some students, this could be risky. But you will be going through them and only picking out the best to share.)

Message Board. Put up a big message board in the break room where staffs can write comments and notes about cool things they’ve seen of other staffs. This is a nice way to further the feeling of the school community.

Gift bags. We bring this up because it’s fairly common and an easy way to provide all the prizes for the week. Pens, supplies, candy, slips of paper with different school coupons like “Extra Casual Dress Day,” etc…



static1.squarespace.com · Web viewIn short, we’ve tried to do all the planning and thinking for you. Although the main goal for this boost is to simply show appreciation, we sprinkled

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