Best Idea Ever: Handprint Memories, Then and Now

Education World's Best Idea Ever feature highlights a favorite teacher-tested idea designed to help you teach a lesson, manage a classroom, communicate with parents, impress colleagues and administrators—and amaze them all with your energy and creativity!

My first teaching assignment was as a kindergarten teacher. That year, my students, like those in nearly every kindergarten across the country, presented their families with a treasured gift -- painted, pudgy handprints smeared next to the poem below.

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls.
But every day I'm growing ...
I'll be grown-up someday,
And all those tiny handprints
Will surely fade away.
So here's a final handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small.

More recently, my own daughter, whose fingerprinted kindergarten poem still hangs in our home, graduated from high school. She brought home a diploma and a gift -- painted, no-longer-pudgy handprints neatly applied next to a slightly revised version of the poem.

Sometimes you got discouraged
Because I was so small
And always left my fingerprints
On furniture and walls.
But every day of growing ...
Made me grown-up today
And all those tiny handprints
Have surely gone away.
So here's a final handprint
Not to be washed away
Exactly how my fingers looked
On Graduation Day.

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