Work or Play?

Ever since I was unexpectedly (and unknowingly) replaced as the Box Tops Coordinator at our school, I've been trying to figure out how to put in my required 30 hours of volunteer work (we're at a Charter School where volunteering is mandatory).  I didn't do a darn thing the whole first half of the year, mostly in protest of my ousting.  (Which I realize is totally ridiculous, since not another soul probably even knew of or cared about my displacement.)

Mike's had a slow work week, so when an email came about a volunteer opportunity at the school, I figured I should take advantage of not needing to find a babysitter, and start whittling down my hours.

I had a little information about what Mrs. J wanted on the bulletin board, so I sketched something out on a piece of paper and started to work.  The 4th graders are working on reports on North American animals, so that (and that it needed Spanish translation) was my only stipulation.  I was supposed to have some helpers, but in my overachieving, controlling fashion, I hyperfocused and did it all myself before anyone had a chance to screw it up give helpful suggestions.

  Here's what I came up with:

All the animals assigned to the kids are represented here and it was so cute to see them get excited when they saw "their" animal up on the board.  I even had comments from some of the "smart kids" congratulating me for putting the animals into their correct habitats.  (Thank you, Google, for helping me not embarrass my college educated self, or my 4th grade daughter.)

This particular board took me 12 hours from start to finish, when I include all the time it took me to find pictures of the animals online.  I guess I'm doing alright on those volunteer hours....

Katie's teacher pretty much got on her knees and begged me to do her board next, so I reluctantly obliged and got hers done today. ;)

Another 4 hours shaved off--one more bulletin board and I'll have met my volunteer quota for the year!  Though with all of the requests from the other teachers in the past two days, I'm pretty sure I'll be exceeding my 30 hours.  Good thing it doesn't feel anything like work.  I kinda wish I'd figured this out 2 years ago!  Thank you, whomever decided someone else needed to do the Box Tops.  Who knew you were doing me such a favor?