The end of the school year can be hard on elementary school students. There are plenty of happy children on the final day of school who are ready for summer vacation and the challenges of a new grade level. However, there are also plenty who are sad and disregulated at the thought of having to learn a whole new set of rules and routines the next year.
Others are sad for different reasons........
At the end of the 2004 school year, I had a student experience what he perceived to be the worst day of his school career. The reason? He found the perfect end of year gift for me and he forgot it at home. After an hour of crying, we tried calling mom and dad, but his parents both worked and could not leave to bring a gift to school. He spent the day in tears and kept telling me, "I got your gift from my grandma's neighbor. It's the best gift ever"
He was tight-lipped with the details about grandma's neighbor.
Dad emailed me that afternoon and assured me they had found me the most incredible end of year gift, repeated the part about finding it at his grandmother's house, and that they would drop it off at school the next day while the teachers were having their end of year work days.
I was not overly worried about the gift.
End of year workdays are so boring. Lots of papers to file, cleaning, and everyone just wants to finish as quickly as possible to start summer break. I can do paperwork so long, but I eventually need a break. In the middle of the morning I walked through the office and saw a brown paper bag stuffed into my mailbox.
It was crisp and had my name written on it in black marker.
I pulled it out of my mailbox and I knew it was the gift from the student. Knowing it came from his grandma's neighbor, I figured it was a trinket of some sort or vegetables from their garden. Obviously neither, because I don't blog about vegetable gardens. When I picked up the bag and looked inside, I could it was a baseball, but I couldn't see the writing.
I picked it up and turned it over..........
Nobody has ever given me a better end of year gift from their grandmother's neighbor.