We appreciate Mrs. Stauffer

This afternoon, I was able to go to Gracie's school to present Mrs. Stauffer with the 'teacher appreciation' book I made using the students' work. I had a lot of fun putting it all together and I think she really liked it. I was so happy that she read it to the students. She read the poem I'd written about her and each of the pages written by the students. I was thrilled to get a paper back from all 15 of them! Not all on time of course, but I least I got them all back! She didn't read all of the letter I wrote from the parents or all of the story I put at the end, but that was okay. The letter was more from the perspective of a parent and wouldn't have meant too much to the kids. She did read the Scripture I'd put at the top of the page. She mentioned maybe reading the little story to them Monday after she'd read it at home and cried! It really is a sweet little story about God creating teachers. I found it online and thought it was cute.

I was a little humbled while watching her read each of their letters to her. While I'd had opinions about some of them that weren't favorable-thinking their handwriting was messy or wondering why they didn't color it-she chose something positive to say about almost all of them-maybe even all of them; I just can't remember for sure.

She made a really big deal about how neat "L's" handwriting was on his. He bowed his head down but you could tell how proud he was to hear her praise. One of the kids mentioned that he hadn't put color on his picture and he replied that he didn't have "no" crayons. I'd been wondering why he didn't color it either, but maybe he really didn't have crayons at home. Just because my child has about 1000 crayons doesn't mean every child does. Another child whose handwriting was quite messy, she made a point of telling him that he'd done well with his handwriting. He very proudly said that his brother had helped him. I felt convicted of being too quick to judge. While I do feel that some of them should be farther along with their handwriting, I need to remember that maybe "T" has come a long way since the beginning of the year. Another one was this other child's writing was especially messy in my opinion, but she made a big deal about how much she liked his picture.

Anyway, the kids really enjoyed having her read each of their letters and showing them off to their classmates. It meant a lot to me that she took the time to do this! She seemed very appreciative and I truly hope she likes it.

I've included pictures of at least part of the book. Click on a picture to see it bigger. The story, "Creation of a Teacher" is really sweet so I hope you can read it if you click on it.




I thought this picture was cute. I think the reason they're being so cheesy is because I had the camera out but also I think someone was passing out cookies to the kids who were being quiet!

Gracie said this doesn't really look like her. She's right-she has a funny look on her face, but I still think it's a cute picture! There were about 2 Kindergarten classes trying to walk in the hallway + one of Gracie's classmates was trying to play with Katie right where I was standing-a little chaotic! Katie was quite the novelty for the kids. She wasn't too sure about it. She cried out one time real loud; I think she got scared because the kids were right in her face and she was needing a little Mommy comfort! She warmed up enough later to leave my lap and go stand next to Gracie at her desk.

The flower in Gracie's hands is my Mother's Day gift! They had all decorated flower pots and planted flowers in them. Very sweet!