Advent Calendar Idea

Last year, for school, I was looking for an advent calendar type of idea that would be more on the "educational" and Bible side of things. I stumbled upon this blog/post, and LOVED it!!! I knew her idea would work better in my home, and didn't have the time to do all the searching, so here is how I changed it up a bit to work for my little school kiddos:

 

Here is my Christmas tree:

(star tutorial found here; the rest is just cut paper for the tree)

I used the Christmas collection of scrapbook paper from the ActivityVillage website, and mounted those on "library card" envelopes. Then I copied and reformatted the "meaning of Christmas" readings and glued them on cards to fit in the pockets.

I used some of the printable for the numbers from here and here. They worked beautifully--very talented people to make them for me to use!!! Thank you!

I popped the inserts in. . .

Then instead of having tangible things to display or put in drawers as shown in the first link, my Sped aide and I got together to collect pictures to hang on the bulletin board.

As seen in the first picture, as each day was read, the picture got to be hung up. The special helper of the day got to search for the right picture, the class got to guess what the pictures might be about, and the "high" readers got to practice reading scriptures. The students really looked forward to doing devotions and Bible in this way! I used it again this past year. . .although we never got it done as a snow day cancelled our last day of school!

If you need yet another way to do advent and teaching the "real" meaning of Christmas, here is what I did. . .

To All Teachers of Any Classroom. . .

An article has been circulating among my friends of Facebook. It was found right here: at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blackberry/p.html?id=3209305

It’s a humorous article by Steve Wiens, titled:

Steve Wiens: To Parents of Small Children: Let Me Be the One Who Says It Out Loud from May 3, 2013 17:02:32

It made me smile, and even chuckle every now and then. I’ve read it over a few times and decided to give it a try. . .here is my rendition of his article (with no intention to get in trouble for any copyrighting or all that jazz—I give ALL credit to him for what he wrote!) in order to send a note of encouragement to those teachers in my blog-world.

So here it is:

Susan: To Teachers of Any Classroom with Needs and Needs and More Needs: Let me Say it Out Loud. . .or at Least on this Humble Little Blog

I am in a season of my teaching career right now where I feel bone-tired almost all of the time. Ragged, how-am-I-going-to-get-through-the-lesson-plans-by-the-end-of-the-day-or-even-get-them-through-this-year-learning-anything-at-all, hands-in-the-air, did-I-teach-them-anything-at-all exhausted.

I have a full class of primary students—the little ones. I'm not complaining about that. Not even one little bit. I wouldn’t change it for anything. I absolutely LOVE what I do! But the helplessness I sometimes feel—I could give that away. But I know I have a principal and superintendent and board and school community with high standards. I have a bunch of parents who have trusted their darlings into my care each day. And I have a bunch of wide-eyed students who are looking up to me . . . all the time. ALL the time!

I have a class with needs and needs and more needs. There are many moments where they are utterly delightful, like last week, one of them told me they wanted to be a teacher just like me when they grew up, which they thought would probably be about 2 years from now. Or the time when one of them prayed that they could be locked in the school so they could have a sleep-over with me and never have to leave the classroom. Or the time  when one student came up to me and wrapped herself around me in a spontaneous hug to which followed all of the others who are just itching for a class cuddle.

Oh, but there are also many moments when I feel like I have no idea how I'll make it until the end of the day. The constant demands, the outbursts, the yogurt spills on the carpet, the noise, the repeating of directions, the forms, the grading, the set-up, the clean-up, the “I-think-I’m-going- to-be-sick” moments, the e-mails, the phone calls, the problem-solving, the blank stares after 2-step directions are given. Oh they are like fingernails across the chalkboard. The gentle reminders I daily (or hourly. . .or is happening each minute?) give to not all shout my name at once or follow me around like a mother duck and her ducklings. Or shed tears or angry words when demands are not met immediately and to their liking.

photo credit

I’ve come to the stark realization that I am not an octopus with enough hands to juggle all of their papers or problems. Or a superhero who can jump in at any given moment to perfectly rescue them at exactly the right moment. Or a mind-reader who will magically know what is going on in their heads when they can’t get it out by way or words or pictures or actions. . .and follow their logic of course. Or a miracle worker. Oh, to be a miracle worker!

I’m just a teacher.

I have to confess that sometimes, it all drives me to chocolate. And I will neither confirm nor deny how much coffee I drink in one day or how much junk food might be stashed in my desk. Or how loud I play my music on my drive home.

There are people who say this to me:

"You are a great teacher! You can do it!"

I usually smile and give some sort of lame joke to brush the comment aside, but inside, I secretly don’t always feel like I am who they think I am. Sometimes I feel like I wasted a whole day of a child’s life. Sometimes I feel like I didn’t teach the lesson in a way that made them “get it.” Sometimes I feel like we are on a journey that is just too far and the end is not in sight. Sometimes I feel like they missed the point—or I missed the point.

If you are a teacher, you know that there are moments of spectacular delight, and you can't believe you get to be around these little people all day—five days a week; 6-7 hours a day. The joy, the bliss, the “ah-ha” moments, the successful projects, the cooperative group projects, the high test scores! But let me be the one who says the following things out loud:

You are not a terrible teacher if have tried the lesson three (or even 10) times with three (or 10) different approaches and they still give you blanks stares. Half of them are probably already doing calculations two grade levels up and solving major world problems as they stare.

You are not a terrible teacher if you need to take a story break sometimes. You are justified—you have little imaginations that need to be filled right there in your presence. Who knows if one of your students might become the next Dr. Seuss or Robert Munsch, or if they have already formulated the storyline for the next book about the Wimpy Kid or Star Wars.

You are not a terrible teacher if you can't figure out how to refocus their energy on the 18^th math problem today and need to take a Body Break (of course that is the teacher lingo for run around like crazy for five minutes—you included!) instead. Mind and bodies need to grow and their bodies might be more needy today.

You are not a terrible teacher if you are wishing it were a snow day . . and it’s only  the end of September.

You are not a terrible teacher if you are wishing that the Pro-D meeting would end really soon because you have about 10 stacks of grading sitting on your desk and next month’s unit to plan and bulletin boards to plan and Centre activities to organize for the next school day. And today would have been a great day to get it done. . .instead of spending the weekend working on school stuff. . .again.

You are not a terrible teacher if you just can't wait for the end of the day after a school spirit dress-up day. Or even if it’s a Friday of a short work week.

You are not a terrible teacher if the sound of certain complaints no longer register as immediately urgent to deal with. You don’t like your sandwich again? Your shoes are wet after jumping in mud puddles again? Your pencil broke again? You lost your journal again? You don’t feel like writing today . . .or reading or doing math or science or socials or health? What exactly are you trying to say. . .again?

You're not a terrible teacher.

You're an actual real and normal teacher who has a desire for your students to learn and succeed in your classroom and in life. You cannot do it all. We all need to admit that one of the casualties specific to our information saturated culture is that we have sky-scraper standards for teaching and learning, where we feel like we're failing horribly if we give them more free writing time or add a few extra minutes onto recess or watch a video—even if it is an informational one and fits into the theme you are studying perfectly!

One of the reasons we are so exhausted is that we are over-saturated with information about the kind of teachers we should be. And we are getting so overwhelmed with that instead of being the teachers we were created to be.

So, maybe it's time to stop reading the blogs that tell you how to be the best kind of teacher in 7 steps, with the best worksheets and centre activities, with the cutest graphics because obviously students learn better with cute pictures and the latest fonts. Maybe it is time to stop beating yourself up because you can’t figure out a way to teach this one skill in the absolutely best way possible and integrate it into five other subjects as well. Maybe it is time to stop worrying about what is the principal or other teachers or parents going to say about the project that sure looks messy now, but will have great results . . . just wait and see when we are done.

Maybe it's time to embrace being the kind of teacher who takes those “fails” in class and turns them into “wins.” Who prays regularly for your students and asks God to give you the right, calm, and confident words He wants you to speak into these students. Who asks God to help you to be a better version of the person that you actually are, not for more strength to be an ideal teacher. Who uses moments in the classroom and the playground to recognize that we are sinful creatures who need a Saviour. Who can show that they are forgiven by showing that same kind of love to those around them. Who can model a servant heart and expect a higher degree of love to be shown on a regular basis. Who can show grace because you were shown grace when you needed it most by Someone who has a lot of it to give.

So, the next time you see teachers with that foggy or glazed or frustrated or pensive look in their eyes, take a moment to pray for them. Send them a note of encouragement. Put your hand on their shoulder, look them in the eyes, and tell them that they're doing a good job. That they are doing what they were created to do and are striving to follow the example of the Greatest Teacher. Just don't freak out if they start the waterworks. At times, we feel like we're botching the whole deal and our students will turn into . . .well, we aren’t exactly sure anymore.

You're tired. Today might be a good day or it might be the day that tops the world’s worst day ever list.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

You are making a difference. You just might not be the lucky one to see the results . . . at least not yet. But ask them in 15 or 20 years what their teachers did for them. They won’t repeat the list of how you feel the day went. You might be most encouraged to know that they will look back on today as one that spurred them to be exactly who God created them to be . . . because that is what their teacher taught them and how their treated them.

Go. . .and enjoy your day teaching those precious children of a God. The same God who gives courage and patience and rest. . .and go eat some more chocolate.

Pretty clothespins

Here is a quick and easy thing I did a few nights ago.

Pretty clothespins!

No, I'm not so crazy that I need this for hanging my laundry (I don't know how durable they would be if used for that reason). I was thinking more on the lines of hanging up student art. I used the clothespins last year, but I just wanted to spruce it up a little, make it "cutesy," like a good primary teacher would. :) Using clothespins was so-o-o handy--no pushpins=so much quicker to put up and down! An easy student art wall!

 Here is how easy it is: Cut strips of scrapbooking paper--really thin! Measure your clothespins and cut away. Glue the strips on. Wait for them to dry. Then modge-podge, or whatever brand you have of that glue-ish-y paint. Wait for it all to dry again--really good this time, and there you go.

 So, now I have done my first "get-ready-for-the-new-school-year" project.

And I'm wondering where is my summer disappearing to???

Superheroes and Sidekicks. . .against bullying

Our school recently celebrated a "theme week," with this year's theme being "Superheroes and Sidekicks." This was a theme that was centred around our Greatest Superhero, Jesus Christ, whose greatest gift to us was His saving love. We focused on the following verses:

Matthew 22:36-40

New International Version (NIV)

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In this theme, we tried to foster positive character building and friendship traits by taking a villain--something that stops love from being spread--and to fight that with a superpower, which turned out to be the fruit of the spirit. The theme week overlapped "Pink Shirt Day," a day in which people wear a pink shirt to show their desire to take a stand against bullying.

The school's PAC so willingly decorated the display case in a "comic book"style. Our week included Captain Bucket-filler--a superhero we created in connection to the book about filling people's buckets--and our school's theme from last year about how God desires us to fill the buckets of others by doing kind and loving things.

One of the grade five classes created these banners for the "Pink Shirt Day."

Our staff room had a HUGE table filled with resources about friendship and bullying for teachers to use throughout the week.

Here is Captain Bucket-filler himself (our principal!) in a visit to each classroom to encourage the students to keep filling others buckets!

Pink Shirt Day was accompanied by pink lemonade for all the kids and treats to celebrate friendship!

Friday was a superhero dress-up day, closing chapel, and grade-level presentations.

Each class was responsible for creating a project of some kind to present to their grade level on Friday to show what they learned about friendship. My group of grade ones picked the villain, "The Meany Monster. We created "Wanted" posters with pictures of crazy monsters and wrote descriptions about what a mean monster might do. Then we talked a bunch about the Fruit of the Spirit.

With a little searching on google, I found colours that represented the fruit of the Spirit, so we made beaded bracelets for our grade one friends in the other classes, and also made a card that went along with it explaining how we wanted to practice "loving our neighbors" by letting the fruit of the spirit flow out of us instead of those mean traits.

Here are some of the kids working so hard on their cards. (We each had to make 2-3 bracelets/cards so that we could have one for ourselves and also share them with the other classes!)

It was a great week of watching the presentations of the other classes and spending a lot of time talking about how we can show love to God and our neighbor in the way we treat our friends.

The week started out with an opening chapel, featuring a teacher skit of a Sloth who saved his sleepy friends, even though they at first found him annoying.

The week ended with a worship chapel, where we also acted out the Good Samaritan story and sang our favourite song of the week, "Jesus, You're My Superhero!"

Crumpled Paper Bullying Lesson

Here is a little devotional I prepared about bullying/treating others as God would have you treat them.
The story/text came from here, but you can find stories based on this one if you type in the right search words (crumpled paper bullying worked for me). I actually first came across this activity one day checking out Pinterest for the first time--a pin told the story of a teacher from NY who did this. Whoever this teacher is, thank you for letting me use your idea to hopefully challenge and change a few minds.

Begin by  handing out pieces of paper, having every one create their name on one and read these verses:

Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Jeremiah 1:5(NIV)

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

(Crumple and crush paper)

Read:

"The teacher gave each student a clean crisp sheet of paper. She then instructed the class to crumble up the piece of paper, toss it around, get angry with it, and stomp on it.

After which, she told the students to return to their seats (with their piece of paper), flatten it out on the top of their desks, making it as flat and perfect as they can, and finally, apologize to the paper.

When all the students had done their best to iron out the paper and apologize to it, the teacher picked up the paper on the first classmates desk, held it up so the entire class could see it and said:

If this piece of paper had been another person, and you had done all those things to him or her, by making them feel less than perfect (through your words or actions), these are the scars you would leave. That person would never be the same, no matter how many times you tell them you are sorry, no matter how many times you try to smooth things out..."

 As a follow up: I would talk about how we can never make the piece of paper straight again--there would always be creases left, no matter how many apologies were made. No matter how many crease we may have made in our own papers or in the papers of others, we could never take them back completely. As a Christian, there is one who already did this for us. He took our crumpled names and brought them before the Father. He showed the Father His wounds, He reminded the Father of His Love, and the Father made the paper new again.

A few more verse to read:

2 Corinthians 5:17(NIV)

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[The old has gone, the new is here!

1 John 3:1(NIV)

¹ See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

John 3:16(NIV)

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

1 Peter 3:12-14(NIV)

¹² For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

¹³ Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? ¹⁴ But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”

Luke 12:7(NIV)

⁷ Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.


And a few verse you can read as you picture yourself standing before the Father, and He is saying to you that because He loved you and His Son already paid for your sins:

Song of Songs 2:2(NIV)

He

² Like a lily among thorns
is my darling among the young women.

Song of Songs 4:7(NIV)

⁷ You are altogether beautiful, my darling;
there is no flaw in you.


And a video or two:

You Make Beautiful Things
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uumI-PdeZzY

Something Beautiful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5xuRcW4bvM

How He Loves Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxTOsQ3LDE4

You're Beautiful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg4cYdP1ngw&feature=related

O Little Town. . . in a Formula Can

I know this is kinda late to post as it is a Christmas project to do in the classroom (or at home), but I just can't wait until next year to do it! And it turned out so nice, so. . .here you go!

My "inspiration" for this project came from two places. One, I had a collection of formula cans sitting in my basement collecting dust. (I'm dutch or thrifty. . .take your pick! I can't throw away something that could be useful!) Two, I found these cute printables that I thought HAD to be used for something good!

So, here is what I did. . .I took a project that I had done every year, and changed it into a 3D storytelling can. Here is the 3D version of "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

 Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of a finished project right now. . .but below is the general idea. The kids would either paint or use pastels to make the night sky. Then we would make the town of Bethlehem as a silhouette, glue it on, and put starts in the sky--by way of shiny stickers, stamps or paint. For this project, I did all that still, but instead of just mounting them on a black background and hanging them up on the wall, we put them on a can. Check it out:

You can use formula cans, hot chocolate or coffee cans. . .whatever.

I did this project in small parts, mostly with the help of parent helpers in the classroom or as a centre activity here and there. The first part was paining the sunset background. We talked about blending the colours together to make a night sky.

 The second part was making the town of Bethlehem. We read the Bible story and looked at some picture Bibles as well to get an idea of what kinds of houses and inns Mary and Joseph might have seen the night they came to Bethlehem. Then we drew them. Below is my "instructions" for a Centre activity.

 Once we had glued the "town" onto the background, we cut the background to the size of the can and glued it onto the can. (Next time I might first cut the papers to the size of the can as a bunch of the colours that that kids mixed to make the sunset background got chopped off. It still looks fine, but I would rather see more colours!)

 Here are the kids gluing the backgrounds onto the cans.

 And holding the edges together to make sure it stuck in place!

 Here are the cans resting until the next step.

 Next we added wire to the top as a handle for the cans. . .and to use as a place to have our Bethlehem star hang from.

 A bunch of the cans with the wires on them. . .the cardboard cans were easier--obviously. I used a hammer and nail for all of them and the kids put the wires through, but I had to actually work at getting a hole in the metal ones!

 Then we punched out some stars with a craft punch, glued two together at the ends of some yellow embroidery floss

 Then tied a bow. . .and there is a hanging Bethlehem star.

 There are no pictures of it, but at a centre, we cut out these printables, and glued them on to strips of construction paper folded in half in order to stand up. These we stored in out cans. We also added 4 Popsicle sticks used to make the outline of a stable, three wise men, and a pasture for the shepherds.

 Each year in class we have a booklet of the Christmas story. Each page has the story in an "easy-to-read" form and a space to create a directed-drawing picture. These books became more meaningful this year, as the kids were able to read their story along with their project. After each page read, the kids would get to "act out" the story using their characters and their town of Bethlehem. They LOVED it!

 We practiced reading it together and acting it out as a whole class. Then, they got to team up with their grade three buddies and read/ tell the story of Christ's birth.

 Below if a "final" scene from one group.

We will see if I can do this project again next year. . .with no more formula in the house. . .I need to start drinking a lot of coffee and hot chocolate in order to save up enough cans!

Making Shadows & Prints

A few weeks ago I was watching a TV show with the kids. . .a science one where they were talking about the power of the sun. The sun can make pictures, it said. E saw this "science experiment" on the show, so we had to give it a try.

We took a few leaves from around the yard, a few rocks because our first try at the experiment blew away on us, and some cheap construction paper (the cheaper the better because it fades faster and better!) E arranged his leaves on the paper, we put rock on each of them (ones that didn't go over the edge of the leaves so that the shadows would look like the leaves we were trying to "print" on the paper), and then took off to the grocery store. A few hours later, this is what we saw:

So, there is your quick activity to test our how powerful the sun is--and how artistic the sun can be as well!

And here is a picture that Princess A wanted me to take. . .because she was to impatient to do the experiment with us! And this flower was pink. . .and pink and purple are princess colours, of course!

Learning Letters and Sounds with Flashcards

Being a teacher, I couldn't resist showing these to you! I stumbled upon this idea as I was looking for some baby/sewing tutorials, and thought I should share the work of this talented mom with you! If you are a mom of a preschooler or a care-giver of any sort, read on!

Homemade by Jill is a blog I have visited before. In this post of hers, she shows off these cute little flashcards that she made to teach her son the letters of the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes. I have a son who is reading a bunch already (and not quite in school yet) and a daughter who couldn't care less about letters and numbers. However, the ballerina card was pretty catchy for her, so she looked through them all. :)

Thought I would share them with you. . . the teacher in me thought they were very cute and very useful. Laminate, punch a hole and put them on a ring, and you have an instant "book" to take along with you in the car or to read before bed.

(One warning I do have for you if you are printing them off, the "regular" print option had a few glitches when I tried it. . .some of the letters needed a bit of fixing before laminating.)

*Image taken from Homemade by Jill post (see link above)

I Won a CD!

I won a giveaway!

I haven't really entered many of these--many US blogs are only looking for US people to enter, and the ones I can enter, well, when you enter a giveaway, there are so many people! The chance of getting your name pulled out of the hat or jar. . .

But this time it was my turn to get sent a little something!

Kim over at Homesteader's Heart was hosting the giveaway. She has a beautiful blog--very inspiring. When I entered, it was the first time I had seen her blog. She was giving away a CD set and a sample CD.

In the meantime, little A was born, so I wasn't really checking or posting on my blog or Facebook. When I finally did, I had a comment from Kim that she had a little something to send me! Well, that was an extra {little} smile for me after coming home from the hospital with our new {little} smile-maker.
Here is the sampler CD that I won. It has five songs from the various other Cd's of the Planting Seeds Family Worship. It's a neat little something to let me kiddos listen to and use when I go back to teaching again. :)

Thank you very much Kim. Feel free to take a moment to hop on over to her blog. I'm glad I did! You'll like it--I promise.

Visit to the "Old Classroom"

Last week Friday was supposed to be my last teaching day. Instead, I've been home being mom for the past week and a half.

On Friday I did visit the class with little A. The teacher who replaced me gave me a little bit of time to spend with the kiddos, and I got to share my new family member with them.
{Thank you, Alida! I appreciate the time and effort you put into this for me!!!}

It was my plan to have a little something to give my students on my last day of teaching, so I am glad I did plan ahead a little, and at least have these bookmarks ready!

Below you can see an example of the front and the back side of the bookmarks. On the front, I wrote the meaning of their names, along with a Bible verse from Psalm 127:3--"Children are a gift from the Lord. . ."

{We started the year with a unit on "God Made me Special" and we talked a little bit about Who made us unique and wonderful creations, and we also talked a little bit about our names--the names our parents gave to us and the names God has for us. The Bible verse really describes the gift God gave me by placing each of my students in my class. I told many of the parents who were there on Friday this, but this class has truly been a blessing to me! They were such a wonderful bunch of kids--so full of life, so eager, so well-behaved, so compassionate, so much fun! I will miss them!}

Then on the back I wrote a little message for each of them.

And of course, I had to give away some candy too! Who can resist pixie stix?!?!? :)

Then, the class also had a surprise for me! Here is the big class card that they made:

Inside:

The back:

I was blessed with many cards, notes, pictures, stories, crafts, and gifts from the students and parents in the class. What a treat! Thank you, 1C, for the great school year we shared and for blessing both little A and myself when I came to visit. It was great to see you all again!

Teacher Appreciation Week Post

Okay, I have to admit. . .even after a year or so of blogging, I still don't have it all straight! I started a post, saved it as a draft, edited it, and wanted to post it now, but it posted in order of when I saved it in a draft. I figured it would post as a "new" one because I finished it and edited it now. Not sure how to solve that problem. . .

Anyway, here is a link to the post I made. Enjoy. . .

(* Note: the picture comes from here.)

Teacher Appreciation Week

A few weeks ago (the week before Spring Break AND the week us teachers had to hand in our report cards!), the school's PAC hosted a Teacher Appreciation Week. I thought they did such a wonderful job that I wanted to make a blog post about it!

Their theme was Italy, and here are a few photos of some of the things they had set up in our staff room:
The above photo just showed some of the special things they did for us each day. The below photo was the daily draw gifts they had.

Here are some of the decorations in the Staff room:

And some more:

Then, each day they had a "special thing" for the staff.

Day 1: The first day was a treat, with the attached verse: "I thank God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy." Philippians 1:3-4

Day 2: The next day was a flower with this poem:
Why God Made Teachers

by Kevin William Huff

Day 3: We got a card with the Bible verse: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

"Our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father loved us. By His grace God gave us comfort that will last forever. The hope He gave us is good. May our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father comfort your hearts. May they make you strong in every good thing you do and say."

Day 4: The PAC hosted a wonderful Italian-themed lunch for us. It was simply amazing!
We received the poem, Unity by Cleo V. Swarat.

Day 5: We were treated once more to "fancy" ice-cream in the afternoon. Chocolate. . .how could I possibly complain!

Throughout the week, I received many pictures, notes, cards and gifts from my students and the parents of my students. I felt very appreciated and loved! It's amazing what taking a little time to write a note or say a prayer can do for another person.

Then to end, in our boxes, we were left with this note:

Dear Staff,

We want to thank you for all the lovely things you do for our children. They may be encouraging words, your hugs, your great teachings, the love you show, your helping hands, and your never-ending prayers. We wanted to show you this week especially how we appreciate you and all your hard work. We pray that you will have a great two-week break and that you will come back all rested. Here's one more prayer we leave you with:

Teacher's Prayer

Author unknown

Lord, please help me,

To strengthen their voices,

bodies and minds,

To express their feelings and

control them sometimes,

To explore what's near

and venture afar,

But most important to love

who they are.

Thank you so much, PAC, students, and parents for all the love and encouragement you showed to me and the staff at ACES!