Friday was an amazing day! Jenna and I got to spend time in Amara’s first grade classroom helping with a scarecrow as part of their fall project. 3 generations of us girls all in the same classroom. Did I mention it was wonderful? Amara’s teacher had asked for volunteers and there were 6 of us, including 2 other Grandmas. We were to be at the classroom at 9:30. None of us knew what the project was so I didn’t take my camera with me. Neither Jenna nor I wanted to be a distraction to the students by bringing cameras. That was a mistake.

When we arrived, the students were sitting on the floor in front of their teacher for reading time. It was an amazing sight to see. They were all listening attentively to the story. When the story was over the teacher challenged them to see whether the boys or the girls could be the quietest in returning to their seats. They were so quiet and respectful. So different from the crazy behavior you see on the playground. We watched as each child tried to be quieter than the next child.

It was a tie!

Amara’s teacher then told the students that we were going to split up into groups and “stuff the scarecrow”. There were five groups. First up was the pants group. Then the shirt group — that was us! There was a socks group, a shoe group and a gloves group. Our group consisted of Amara and 5 other wonderful little girls. There are 24 students in her class. There are only 8 boys! Our team informed us that “girls rule and boys drool”. They were happy to be an all girl group.

Their classroom is right next to the playground and the outdoor lunch tables so we took the project outside. We started at one end of our team; each girl would stuff 2 handfuls of shredded paper into the shirt, sleeves first, and then pass it down! They didn’t squabble. They were too busy having fun. The weather outside was the perfect fall day, 72 degrees with a light breeze. It is one of those memories that will stay with me forever.

We quickly ran out of shredded paper so we had to start shredding our own. The girls had more fun shredding than they did stuffing!

I like to shred it shred it
I like to shred it shred it
You like to shred it shred it
Shred it!

Once all of the pieces were stuffed, their teacher took them off for recess and the volunteers stayed behind to create the head — face courtesy of Jenna — and to assemble him! The teacher had created a corner in the classroom and left a chair there for us to seat him on.

I would have loved to have seen their faces when they returned to the class. According to Amara — “We loved it Grandma!”

This post has been linked to Say it Saturday at Family Home and Life.