‘We hope you’re safe’: Surrey kindergarteners send cards to flood-ravaged community
Posted December 7, 2021 9:05 pm.
Last Updated December 7, 2021 9:28 pm.
Students in a Surrey kindergarten class are sending their support to strangers in parts of B.C. impacted by catastrophic flooding.
Sharon Sehrai, their teacher at David Brankin Elementary School, says the idea came out of a discussion during “Circle Time” one Monday morning.
“One of the students had actually talked about the floods and said he watched the news with his family and was feeling really sad about it, and was actually scared that the floods would come here,” she explains.
“They were really wanting to talk about it, so I kind of created this space. I was like, ‘I have friends and family there too and they’re sad that their homes are being taken up by water.’ And they were like ‘Well, we want to help them.’ Kids, they’re so cute. In kindergarten they’re four and five, they were like, ‘You know, we can go there, and we can help them. They’re really sweet like that. That’s why I do love teaching the little ones, because they’re so pure, and they really want to help in every way.”
Sehrai explained that it wouldn’t be safe for them to travel there. Then one student had a suggestion.
“Why don’t we make them cards so that they can feel better?” the child asked, and Sehrai says the whole class quickly agreed that was a good idea.
Given how young the children are, Sehrai says the class needed to choose one short, simple message for the recipients.
“We chose ‘We hope you are safe.’ Then they got to decorate the cards. So, some of the cards have a lot of hearts and rainbows and people holding hands and hugging. They put it in the envelopes, they decorated it and they put some heart stickers.”
After that, Sehrai says the kids were wondering how they would know if their letters had arrived, so she gave them a lesson on how mail works. The letters were packed into a Ziploc bag and Sehrai dropped them off at a gurdwara along with some donations.
The class was featured in the school newsletter, something Sehrai says they’re all quite proud of.
“We just sort of discussed how sometimes when you do good, good comes back to you. and they were just so excited.”
