A pupil grows with love or a gift for a teacher
A gift to the teachers Keren and Inbar, from their pupils, at the end of second grade.
The pupils created a seeds necklace for their teachers inspired by the gift the teachers gave them at the beginning of first grade.
*
On the first day of first grade, Keren and Inbar (the teachers of my twin sons) gave each pupil a tiny bag of grass seeds accompanied with planting instructions.
Two years later, at the farewell party of the second grade, each teacher received a necklace of seeds created by her pupils.
The seeds were pierced and made into beads so they could be strung together. On one side of the seed the children wrote their names and the other side was painted and decorated with tiny beads. When the seeds were ready, they were strung together with the kind assistance of the school’s art teacher. All the pupils’ names were put together on a single string made from colored threads chosen by pupils.
Although the seeds used to create the gift were not grass seeds rather seeds from pods that had fallen from trees, this did not alter their significance – just as the first graders nurtured the grass seeds till they grew long green stems, their teachers too nurtured preschool children into young pupils who successfully grew and adapted into their new school environment.
The seed necklace was presented along with a fairytale and a personal message. The tale “There is a Difference” by Hans Christian Andersen draws a parallel between the sun’s “infinite love” and the “mortal love” of a princess who treats the blooming apple branch and the poor dandelion plant equally. Despite their great difference they are treated the same.