Every school has hundreds of kids pass through its doors on a daily basis. Things are bound to get left behind. But what’s really wild (and the bane of many parents’ existence) is that many of those jackets, hats, or—God forbid—a single shoe sit in the school’s lost-and-found bin, doomed to never see the light of day again.
One group of teachers decided to offer their students a kind—and creative—reminder to grab their forgotten treasures: a good old-fashioned fashion show.
In a now-viral video shared by retired kindergarten teacher Leslie Johnson, we see teachers strut down a makeshift outdoor runway, faces fierce, each sporting at least five or six clothing items on hangers as *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” plays in the background. Holy moly, the number of clothing items is truly insane. Is this a year’s worth, or a week?!
Watch:
The gag is not only hilarious but clearly effective, as we also see quite a few kids running up to reclaim their items. So there’s that.
The video has since been viewed a whopping 3.6 million times, garnering a ton of praise from parents whose kids never bother to look for their missing stuff in a spot specifically for that kind of thing:
“This is the MOST genius thing I have ever seen!! You would think it wouldn’t be that difficult for kids to find their belongings in a lost and found bin, but nope they don’t and then the clothes get shipped down to the nurses office whether wanted or not!!”
“I can relate to this so well.My son within the 4 days of school starting, lost four jackets during winter time.”
“I’ve seen 3 hoodies that look like my son’s and he doesn’t even go to that school! 🥴”
“My son lost two jackets in two days. I love this.”
“I know at least $300 of my hard earned dollars would be on this catwalk.”
On that note, many even suggested that parents—who are the ones earning early gray hairs actually looking for these items—should have attended.
“This needs to be a parent day too cause these kids don’t know their own dang clothes 😂😂😂”
“They need to do this at parent teacher conferences 😂😂”
Tips to help prevent kids from losing stuff…without losing your mind
Listen, kids will be kids, but the tips below might help at least lessen the frequency of things going missing. The key is to actively involve kids in any of these strategies so that they are learning responsibility.
Label everything
This is a tedious one, but very helpful. It might not keep a student from forgetting something, but if another student or teacher can see who the item belongs to, it certainly increases the chance of that item getting back to its proper owner.
Create packing routines
Establish a “pack and check” routine for both morning and afternoon to ensure all items are accounted for before leaving home and school.
Reduce clutter
Limiting the number of items carried to school makes it that much easier to manage.
Color-code subjects
Assign specific colors to subjects to help children quickly identify whether they have the correct notebooks or folders, such as red for science or yellow for math.
Use checklists
Have children write a list of their key belongings that need to leave the house in the morning and return home at the end of the day. This helps them visualize and verify that they have all the necessary items. Ideally, kids will eventually remember what to keep track of and not need the list. But even if they don’t, they’ll at least have tangible tools to keep things organized.
That said, don’t be surprised if you still find your child’s sweater at the next lost-and-found fashion show.
