A teacher’s version of ’The 12 Days of Christmas’

I love holiday music. As I was correcting papers this week, “The 12 Days of Christmas” was playing in the background, and I started wondering why the songwriter included so many fowl in his version of the song. I began thinking of what “The 12 Days of Christmas” might be like if the songwriter was a teacher, instead. I think it might be more like this.

On the first day of Christmas, my students gave to me, a mug and a box of tea. (How thoughtful! And look- they all wrote their initials on the mug! I’ll think of them every time I use it.)

On the second day of Christmas, my students gave to me, two colored-pencil sharpeners and a mug and a box of tea. (Great gift! These will replace the two that disappeared last week.)

On the third day of Christmas, my students gave to me, three boxes of zip loc bags… (My husband will be so happy to know that I won’t be asking him to make a special trip to the store on his way home to pick these up for awhile.)

On the fourth day of Christmas, my students gave to me, four boxes of sharpened pencils… (YEA! This made my day. We will not waste any time looking for something to write with. And they’re actually sharpened! What a bonus!)

On the fifth day of Christmas, my students gave to me, five classroom books… (A songbook with jump rope rhymes, a book with science experiments to do in the classroom, a book with riddles, a craft book, and… seriously? How sweet is this?! Someone took pictures of different class activities that we’ve done and put them together to make a book. This will be very treasured!)

On the sixth day of Christmas, my students gave to me, six hens a-laying… (Actually, it was the parents who gave that. And although our school has six hens, only three of them seem to be laying. Maybe I should sing to them!)

On the seventh day of Christmas, my students gave to me, seven unmatched mittens… (It would be so helpful if all outdoor gear was labeled before it came to school, as no one is claiming any of these. They were left on the floor and picked up during clean-up time. Our classroom lost and found box is already overflowing. Someone’s mom is going to be upset that her child is missing another mitten. I wish that clips that attached mittens to sleeves were really in style. That would help immensely.)

On the eighth day of Christmas, my students gave to me, eight boxes of band aids… (I could almost use these for the prize box. They have some amazing designs on them. All those little ow-ies that happen during recess? No worries. I’m going to be totally set for the start of the New Year.)

On the ninth day of Christmas, my students gave to me, nine pages of jokes and riddles… (Hahaha! This will be great for language activities every day. And, it will keep me laughing. I’m going to copy these off and share them with my teaching partner. I think I’ll try to learn a new one every day to share with the other teachers out at recess, too.)

On the tenth day of Christmas, my students gave to me, ten boxes of tissues… (Well, it is December, after all. It’s cold and flu season, and our tissues are disappearing faster than I can resupply them, so a big “Yea!” to the parents who sent these in. I hope they last through the month.)

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my students gave to me, eleven rolls of tape… (Awesome! We’ll be able to open the Creation Station again, and our future engineers and inventors will be able to make creations out of recycled boxes, tubes, and produce containers. They’ll also be able to make duct tape wallets, fancy vases with masking tape and shoe polish, and lots of other projects.)

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my students gave to me, twelve big hugs… (As an elementary teacher, you really can’t get a better gift than that! Hugs say so many things- I care about you, thank you, I like to be with you… and isn’t this what the holidays are all about? I have the greatest profession in the world!)

Happy holidays to all, and to all a great December!

Diana Sloan-Basner is an elementary teacher at Birchtree Charter School. She loves to rewrite the lyrics in songs to go with her study themes.