"I have everything from zebra chairs to zebra lanyards, zebra books,” she said.

Perhaps most importantly a toy zebra named Mr. Stripes who goes home with each student a few times during the year.

"I've always noticed that reading and writing are the hardest for my kiddos. It's hard to get them excited to want to do it. Part of the deal with bringing Mr. Stripes home, our toy, is they had to write and read about what their other friends had done when they had Mr. Stripes,” she said.

Students write about everything from reading with Mr. Stripes to looking for the tooth fairy together to riding bikes together.

So when Stadler heard there was a contest to name the Como Zoo baby zebra, she knew it was a chance to bring Mr. Stripes to life.

They entered that name at the start of the year and Wednesday, the class learned their name was chosen.

"In the next week or two, we get to visit the real Mr. Stripes. It's going to be the longest bus ride because they are going to be so excited to go,” she said.

She said there’s a life lesson hidden in their zest for zebras.

"What really represents zebras for our classroom is that we are all the same but we are all different at the same time and that's awesome,” she said.

