Woodcrest Elementary School
Caring Clean-Up Crew
The Student Council Advisory Board (SCAB) at Woodcrest Elementary School created a Caring Clean-Up Crew as a way to encourage the entire school to show the word of the month, caring, in response to the retirement of the school’s beloved custodian. Students had noticed that the floor in the gym after lunchtime was considerably messy; they were surprised at the amount of trash students left behind. The Caring Clean-Up Crew was launched to inform and motivate students about their responsibility to show respect and caring for the custodian by cleaning up their trash. Various ways to motivate the school were discussed, including table contests, rewards, and clean-up songs. Students heatedly discussed the implications of competition versus intrinsic motivation to do the right thing. SCAB finally decided to provide a rubric and rank the cleanliness of the lunchroom each day in order to give feedback to all kids. Students clean the lunchroom each day and rotating fifth graders evaluate the job with the help of the custodian. The official program continued until the school earned a “9” average for the week, but students still show awareness of the cleanliness issue.
CONTACT
Mrs. Tara/Christina/Mike DiBattista/Boyle/Skalski
Teacher
TDiBattista@chclc.org