I sent home a yellow packet yesterday with you child’s original art and instructions on how to order. The items for purchase make wonderful gifts for the upcoming holiday season and are a terrific fundraiser for our classroom. In the you will find ideas on what you can order with your child’s art on it. For example, I am ordering a Christmas tree ornament for each my own children to commemorate the year and then letting them each pick one other item of their choice (they want a keychain, a notebook and a dog tag). If you are ordering, please make sure that you return the art with the order form in the yellow folder. They can do more than one piece of art for different items. Your child’s other siblings are welcome to do an art piece and you can order items with their art. Just make sure you identify what art you would like on the item. All original art pieces will be returned.

You might notice that your child’s artwork features the silhouette of a tree, but it’s not just any tree. It is a Kentucky Coffeetree. Last year, each Lower Elementary teacher chose a Utah tree grown as a symbol/mascot for the classroom. Ms. Lana chose the Kentucky Coffeetree for us in Room 23. Never heard of it? Let me tell you about it! The Kentucky Coffeetree is native to (you guessed it!) Kentucky, but it now grows throughout the United States. Part of the wide distribution is due to Native Americans purposely bringing seeds with them as they traveled and migrated due to the tree’s usefulness. They used the tree’s beans as food and also as part of religious ceremonies and other uses. Today, the tree is known for being tolerant, adaptable, hardy and pest-resistant in addition to being beautiful and used by cabinet-makers and woodworkers.

Like the Kentucky Cofeetree, I hope all of us in Room 23 can learn to be more tolerant, adaptable and resistant to hardship. I also hope we can all express our individuality within the boundaries of kindness, which is why I chose to let each child decorate their tree as they wanted to.

Lastly, I have a favor to ask. I would love to have a quilt block (one of the ordering options) from each member of our class to make a quilt for our classroom either as a wallhanging to beautify our space or as a weighted/comfort blanket (or possibly floor cushions) for our peace area. Of course, this is not required, but I would like all of the children to feel the pride of knowing they contributed to our classroom. The quilt blocks are inexpensive and I would so appreciate if you consider adding that to your order so that I can create this for our room.

I will create a separate post with FAQs about the Original Works program, including important dates.