Kindergartners Get Shock Surprise After Teacher Reaches Into Box
Robin Hughes is a special education teacher who lived in Kentucky but moved to Florida and now teaches at SouthShore Charter Academy in Riverview.
She recently noticed that as she read a book about snow, her students looked puzzled. When she asked how many had experienced snow, only two students raised their hands, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
It was Florida, after all, but Hughes knew she had to do something to bring the fantastical winter element to life.
Her sister, Amber Estes, still lived in Kentucky — so she begged her to help.
“So I said, ‘I want you to make me a snowman, and I want you to overnight him to me and see if he can make it to the school — because I want these children in Florida to see snow,'” Hughes told WLEX-TV.
Estes was hesitant, citing the recent lack of snow.
“So I said to her, ‘We haven’t had a measurable amount of snow,’ I was making every excuse in the world, and I accepted the challenge because I knew that I would never have to live up to it,” Estes explained.
But then the area got a good dose of snow. Estes kept her promise and put together a small snowman, insulated him as much as she could and sent him off to the Sunshine State.
“So we put him inside the packaging, we wrapped him up in that foil, and we put ice packs in, we sealed him up, we — there was Styrofoam around the box,” she explained. “Off he went down to the local UPS store.”
SouthShore Charter Academy shared the exciting unboxing on its Facebook page. School officials decided that if the snowman had made it intact, they would name him “Lucky,” and if he’d melted, they’d call him “Puddle.”
“So then we went to the classroom and had the kids open it and just the pure joy of seeing that snowman … it was just … To me, that’s what teaching’s about,” Hughes said.
Lucky sports blueberries for eyes and buttons, a carrot for a nose and sticks for arms, but to the kids at SouthShore he’s pure magic.
“As a teacher and a human, it’s amazing how the smallest little thing can make a huge impact,” Hughes told Newsweek. “I think of the analogy of the pebble going into the pond and the ripple effect. It may be really small, but the impact can go on and on. I won’t stop doing little things for my students.”
All good things must come to an end, though, and as much as the traveling snowman has been appreciated and loved, he’s also not going to last forever.
Lucky has been lovingly preserved and made plenty of media appearances — which is more than most snowmen can boast — but he isn’t done teaching lessons yet. On Earth Day, he’ll be allowed to melt and water a plant, which will be kept in his memory.
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