Early Childhood Educator & Child Care Worker Appreciation Day is coming up on Wednesday, October 21st, and we have put together some resources to help you and your community get ready for the day!
Click here to download these tips in PDF format
Tips for operators, supervisors, school leaders, child care centre boards, parent council members
- Share a “mark your calendars!” message with your community – let families, school staff, and community members know that Appreciation Day is coming up on October 21st. You can share this through your email list, group chats, social media, bulletin boards, apps, etc.
- Make it visible – invite children to decorate your space with visual reminders. Depending on you capacity and their interest, you can let them get creative or use our printable colouring sheets to get started. Click here to download the printables! Please note: the QR code in the printables leads to more tips to celebrate Appreciation Day.
Tips for families
- Print our card template and make it colourful with markers, crayons, stickers, or add a picture of your child (with their educators if you have it!) Click here to download the printable card template!
- Make sure you write down your child’s name, their school/centre/program, class/group and the date, including the year
- Include a message from the whole family! Share your gratitude and why you all appreciate ECEs and child care workers!
Tips for writing meaningful messages with young children
-
-
- Write the message for your child or help them write it themselves
- Talk to your child about their educators individually, showing pictures if available
- Be specific, mentioning activities from your child’s day at school/child care: books they read, songs they sing, games they play, mealtimes…
-
On Appreciation Day
Make an Appreciation Day mural or “guest” book
Using a bulletin board, a presentation board, or a large sketch book, create a space for families, staff, children and community members to share messages of gratitude and appreciation. You can leave the mural or book out for a couple of days to give people time to write something, and share the messages with staff at a team meeting. You can leave the mural or book out for a couple of days to give people time to write something, and share the messages with staff at a team meeting, or scan the pages to make them digitally available.
Appreciation Day treats for staff
If your budget allows, treat staff to something yummy! You can kick off ECE and Child Care Worker Appreciation Day with an early morning boost (coffee/tea + muffins, for example), offer a special lunch, or an Appreciation Day dinner.
Appreciation beyond October 21st
Treats, gifts, and words of appreciation are very nice, and always welcomed, but what early childhood educators & child care workers really need is systemic change that shows long term appreciation in the shape of professional wages and supportive working conditions.
What you can do: Get involved with the Care Counts campaign
Through this multi-year advocacy campaign, the AECEO & the OCBCC are bringing together partners and allies across Ontario to call on the provincial government to develop, implement, and fund a wage grid that reflects the important role ECEs and child care workers play in our communities, starting at $35-$45/hour for RECEs and $28/hour for non-registered staff. Click here to learn more about the Care Counts campaign.
Care Counts Rally on October 29th 
Join the AECEO, the OCBCC, the OFL, CUPE Ontario, the South Asian Women’s Rights Organization (SAWRO), and Parents for Child Care for a lunch time rally on the South Lawn of Queen’s Park on Thursday Oct. 29th at 12PM. Not in Toronto or unable to join the rally? Stay tuned for ways you can participate! Click here to RSVP.
If you found these tips and resources helpful, please share the link to this page or this PDF document with your peers and colleagues!