Building Familial Bonds at Carroll-Rosenwald Elementary School

The beginning of the school year is always an exciting time for our students. Carroll-Rosenwald Elementary School on the Southwest Side turns the excitement up a notch for its students in pre-k through third grade by hosting an annual Grandparents’ Day. The students had so much fun welcoming their grandparents to their classrooms. We checked in with Mrs. Brittany Mirkiewicz-Laboy, a teacher at Caroll-Rosenwald, to learn more about why this event is so special for the school community. 

How did this idea for Grandparents’ Day come to be? 
This is our third year doing it, and it was initiated by our principal. We know that a lot of schools might have a father-daughter dance, or a mother-son dance, and we wanted to find a way to honor our grandparents. 

It’s somewhat common for our grandparents to be the primary caregivers of our students, and some of them live in multi-generational homes with their parents and their grandparents. 

We also know that, as we get older, we don’t always have our grandparents with us for as long as we’d like. That’s why we make it such a big deal to bring in as many of our grandparents as we can. 

How did the Carroll-Rosenwald team collaborate to prepare for this event? 
Our principal sets the date, which is generally the Friday before National Grandparents’ Day, which is celebrated in September on the Sunday after Labor Day. The teachers will then collaborate on the activity for the day. We also try to coordinate our decorations and welcome signs. 

As a special education teacher, I bop between classes. One of the activities I’ve done is to have students decorate picture frames with their grandparents, and then I’ll print out pictures that day so the grandparents have something to take home with them. 

What was the students’ response to the event? 
When I was growing up, I always saw being with my grandparents as such a treat. Our students feel the same way. They are always so excited. Some of them were even surprised. I don’t think they knew their grandparents were coming, so there were lots of screams of joy. 

The grandparents also really love it. They’re always very excited to visit their grandchild’s classroom. Everyone is always in a great mood that morning, and the spirit of the school really comes out. 

How does this event tie in with your school’s larger goals? 
Our school’s mantra is “one band, one sound.” With this in mind, we try to facilitate a lot of school-wide initiatives with our families. We have other events and after-school activities where families are invited in. We also have a partnership with the YMCA that helps us engage our parents. We find that facilitating these positive interactions that aren’t necessarily related to academics grows our sense of community overall.