It's hard to find a holiday that can still be celebrated in schools
without criticism or political-correctness.
Big Bear
But across Great Falls last week, students in elementary school
classrooms were preparing to participate in the age-old tradition of
making mailboxes so that they could distribute hearts, candy and other
fun greetings to their classmates for today's holiday — Valentine's
Day.
"They're not going to remember who taught them 2 plus 2, but they'll
remember this," said Kaylea Mullen, a kindergarten teacher at Lewis
and Clark Elementary school, as she watched her students decorate
aluminum-foil covered shoeboxes.
"Kindergarten should be fun and as teacher it's our job to make it
fun," she said.
Whether it was the students in her class who glued heart cut-outs or
foam stickers with the words "love" and "hearts" on them, or
second-graders in Kim Bannister's Riverview Elementary classroom who
turned oatmeal containers into mailboxes, teachers have tried to make
Valentine's Day a learning experience as well as fun.
"You're learning about friendships," Mullen said. "Valentine's Day is
all about love and friendships."
In Bannister's classroom, they took the oatmeal containers and laid
them on their side. They then folded a piece of construction paper
over the top, and taped another piece of construction paper at the
bottom to make the mailbox shape and flap. Using popsicle sticks,
students attached flags to the sides of the boxes with their names on
them.
"Since the beginning of the year we've been bringing in oatmeal
containers," Bannister said. "It's something that they can take home
and keep for years to come."
She said the lesson for her students was two-fold. They had to follow
along and pay attention to directions, and she even squeezed a little
geometry lesson into the mailbox making.
"Boys and girls: What shape is the oatmeal container?" she asked.
They hesitated for a moment and then said in unison, "a cylinder!"
In Jessi Tucker's fifth-grade classroom at West Elementary school,
students brought in boxes of all different sizes last week that they
could turn into mailboxes.
