Teacher gifts

I have a lot of fun through out the year writing down what the girls have to say about their teachers.  Some are pretty funny and cute.  Ava gave me a wealth of comments to work with this year but Carli really doesn't talk about her teacher as much as she did when she was at OTA.  I am sure this has a lot to with the size of the class going from 8 kids to 20!  Plus, Carli has more than one teacher that she sees each day.  But none-the-less we worked with what we had and true to the tradition that we have done the last few years, we gave our teachers some home-made gifts.  This year, instead of doing note pads, we opted to try the OPEN WHEN letter route.  We still used the girls quotes, but maybe this way it will spread the joy over a few days and bring a smile to their faces. 

Our OPEN FIRST letter was actually a note from me explaining how much we appreciate them and why.  I have a very strong appreciation for teachers and the job they do especially since my Momma was a teacher for over 25 years.  As a teacher's kid you see a lot more of what teachers have to do every day and during the summer to do their job well.  So, I wrote the teachers a note.  The other four letters consisted of "Open when you feel discouraged," "Open when you need a reason to smile,"  "Open when you are having a bad day," and "Open when you need reassurance."  All were filled with quotes from that the girls made about their teachers throughout the first semester and a little something extra (like a gift card or picture) to go along with it.

Mrs. Reid, Carli's teacher, caught us off guard when Carli came home with a note on Monday saying that Mrs. Reid would not be there on Friday b/c of a family commitment so we had to scramble to put together our gift.  It definitely looked homemade!  :)  My favorite thing we included in her gift was a picture Carli drew of Mrs. Reid at the beginning of school to show Ava what her teacher looked like.

Ava and I had a little more time to work on her notes.  She worked hard on decorating her envelopes and putting a special touch to each one.  Ava had some pretty good stuff from Mrs. Denise.  My favorite is when she gets frustrated with Carli and she spouts off with, "Gurrrrrl!"  It's a Mrs. Denise favorite line.  :)

 

We also handed out pumpkin bread loaves to all our teachers, even the ones that help at pick up and drop off, the workers in the office and our Bible School teachers.  The girls had a very specific list to hand them out to!