Letter of Appreciation for Raleigh Shippen:
Dear Raleigh,
Thank you for being such a terrific son and example to your little sisters! I appreciate how thoughtful you are to those around you and how patient you are with Shay and Kysa. You are an absolute joy to have in our home. I appreciate your enthusiasm for school, scouts, church, basketball, swimming, piano, football, and life. I really enjoy your sense of humor. I appreciate you when you clean your room and help around the house. I appreciate how kind you are and how you treat your friends, family, and teammates. I appreciate the way you are responsible with your homework and how well you have improved in your reading. I really enjoy spending time with you like playing football, horse, or the wii or just hanging out watching Jimmer score 30 points. Always know and remember you are loved by your parents, your grandparents, and yes even your sisters. I couldn’t be prouder of the young man you are becoming.
Love,
Dad
From: Van Dam, Christina -D91
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 9:58 AM
Subject: letters of appreciation
Dear Parents,
It’s kind of a solemn place here at Ethel Boyes today. As most, if not all, of you know, the board decided last night on option 1 for boundary changes. What this means is that all of you that live in the Village will no longer be a part of Ethel Boyes. This saddens me deeply and I spent most of the night last night in tears thinking about the kids in my classroom that I will be losing. Your children have become a part of me and I want you to know how grateful I am for the opportunity I have to be their teacher and to love them and watch them grow.
This week, we kicked off Rachel’s Challenge. The children that signed the banner promised to practice kindness, compassion, inclusion and respect. They are performing random acts of kindness and giving chains away to those that show kindness unto them. We have talked this week a lot about what it means to show kindness and respect and that not all of our deeds will go noticed but that it is okay. Our kindness chain has started in the classroom and is growing every day. As part of this program, we are going to be talking in our classroom about appreciation and gratitude. One of the things we will be doing is writing letters to express those things. I am asking that each of you take the time between now and Thursday, February 17, to write a letter of appreciation/gratitude to your student and place it in a sealed envelope and send it to school. (You can also email it and I will print it and put it in a sealed envelope). When I see them in their folders, I will know what they are and write their names on them then so that the kids don’t have any idea what is going on. I think that this will be very powerful for the students and a great stepping stone for talking about how it makes us feel to receive letters of this nature and why we might want to tell people what we love and appreciate about them. The more letters for the kids the better so if a grandma/grandpa or brother/sister, etc. want to write a letter as well, that would be perfectly acceptable. I just need them in my possession by Thursday, February 17. If you have any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Thanks for all of your support. I am blessed beyond measure to be the teacher of each of your children. Have a great rest of the week!
Chris Van Dam
1-3 Spectrum
Ethel Boyes Elementary School
1875 Brentwood Drive
Idaho Falls, ID 83402
