Day 34- How it all began . . .

It was maybe twenty years ago, that I introduced Pig Week into my first grade classroom.  We were big into weekly themes back then, and our new reading series featured a story about a pig.  I told my class that the next week we were going to celebrate one of the most important weeks in the year, and they were brimming with excitement, curiosity, and anticipation as they entered the classroom the following Monday. What would the new theme be? Pigs? PIGS? After I introduced the story, did some pig art projects, pig writing projects, and read some fabulous pig stories, they became believers! Several of them brought me stuffed pigs that year, because they figured I MUST like pigs.

The first day of school the following year, one of my new students timidly asked me if it was true that I liked pigs! When I replied that indeed I did, the children looked at each other with amazement.  Well, this was going to be an interesting year?!?!?  And I received many, many pigs as gifts that year.

Well, that was the start of it all. Twenty years later, I now own pig jewelry, pig figurines, pig socks, pig slippers, pig wall hangings, pig flashlights, pig calendars, pig pens, pig mugs, pig puppets, and more stuffed pigs than you can imagine! SInce my retirement last year, I’ve been struggling with what to do with them all. I’m surprised at how attached to them I really am!

Here is a photo of a very minor part of my collection- plastic pigs used for counting:

f/2.8, 1/320, ISO 500, 35 mm