WELLINGTON, Fla. — Third-grader Annabelle Martinez and her sister Maddie are coloring owls, which is their school's mascot.
"I put owl pride and Binks Owls because everyone at the school are owls. I miss my friends and learning in school," said Annabelle.
Maddie also misses time at school.
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"I miss seeing like my teachers and I miss having time to play around with my friends and everyone," said Maddie.
Michella Levy the principal at Binks Forest Elementary in Wellington says they wanted to reach out to kids and let them know they're missed.
With help from the school's PTA, kids at the school received a copy of Winky The Owl to color.
The kids started coloring the owls and writing messages to their teachers and posting them on their mailboxes, hoping teachers would notice.
"We probably had about 400, maybe 420 owls that were posted on mailboxes," said Levy.
Annabelle and Maddie's mom Jennifer Martinez says it was fun seeing so many mailboxes in the community decorated.
"I thought it was an incredible idea and I love that the PTA put that together because the kids are feeling they are going through the emotions. They are sad, they miss their friends and they miss their teachers," said Martinez. "There were houses that we didn't even realize had children that also went to the school so that was also cool to see."
The principal says more projects are planned in the future.
"Every other week we are going to do something like that and promote it. It's just to keep the kids connected to us and to let them know that we are thinking about them and do miss them," said Levy.
