Act of Kindness: Thank a Teacher with Yard Signs (for Under $3)

As the new school year was coming closer and summertime was ending, my oldest son was thinking about his previous teacher and wanted to do something for her as soon as school began.  To decide what to do, we thought back to some of the things we had done during the summer, one in particular:  When we made a sign for our swimming teacher.

The House of Shine offers up monthly Shineworks Challenges where you use regular items around the house in an act of kindness.  July's Challenge was paint stirrers. 

We took on her challenge and wanted to thank our swimming teacher.  She and the boys had a running joke about Henry the Shark who lived in the deep end and was invisible in the daylight but turned rainbow colors at night.  The boys decided to make a humongous shark for our swimming teacher as their way of saying, "Thanks!  You are awesome!"  Henry the Shark ended up being 21 1/2 feet long!

(Okay, so we underestimated how much cardboard we would need, and he kind of looks like an eel, a fiercely, shark-like eel, that is!)

And, the way we used the paint stirrers:  We used them as stakes to hold up the cardboard.  Our own yard sign of awesomeness for our great teacher!

 

 

It was no surprise that my oldest decided to go with yard signs of awesomeness to show some love and kindness to his "old" teacher who started his journey in school off so well in kinder last year!

 

We got together several pieces of poster board.  Any color will do.  We noticed, though, that the fluorescent colored poster board was particularly eye-catching from the road.

 

The boys drew pictures and wrote messages on both sides of the poster boards using markers:

 

You are a GREAT teacher!

Awesome people live here!

Thank you!

I love you!

 



 

 

Then, we rounded up some paint stirrers that we hadn't used in a previous painting project.  Our awesome dad (who always supports us with our daily acts of service but doesn't really get mentioned much--We love YOU!) cut each end of the paint stirrer so that there was a definite point to help the now formed "stake" get pushed into the ground.

 

We attached the paint stirrers with good ole packing tape, and we were set!

 

When the first day of school was over, we loaded the signs, some pinwheels, and a hammer into the car and drove to her house.  (We thought she wouldn't be there because teachers always have meetings afterschool, even on the first day.) 

 

We, very quietly, and, with only a few skirmishes over who was going to use the hammer, strategically placed the signs and pinwheels in her yard. 

 

 

Then we skedaddled away before too many people saw us.  We later found out that those signs proved to be a brightening spot for her and her kids after a long first day of school!

 

 

 

This is definitely one that we will repeat.  It was meaningful, inexpensive (under $3), fun, and a nice surprise for the recipient!

 

For Other Ideas on Acts of Kindness for Teachers