Kindergarteners Help Childhood Cancer: Kayla Pohl and Susan Wells

Planning for Service Learning

Kayla Pohl and Susan Wells—Kindergarten Dames Ferry Elementary

Grade level: Kindergarten

Content-learning about: writing letters/cards, money/giving, character education, health, community helpers

Service Need: Childhood cancer is the number one disease killer of children ages 0-20 in America, yet research for pediatric cancer is under-funded up to $30 million a year. Childhood cancer is different than adult cancer and thus requires different research. Many children going through cancer treatment need encouragement and support from children their own age. The Rally Foundation is a national non-profit organization that raises money for childhood cancer research and also supports specific children going through cancer treatment.

Service Idea: Students will write and make “thinking of you” cards for Rally children going through cancer treatment. They also will help raise money for the Rally Foundation to support childhood cancer research by participating in a program 4 Quarters 4 Research.

Preparation: Students will learn about childhood cancer and how to help support those going through it. We will have class discussions and read books about helping others in need.

Action: Students will make the encouragement “thinking of you” cards for specific Rally Children. They will take a 4 Quarters 4 Research bag home to raise money for childhood cancer research.

Reflection: We will graph the amount of money that comes in between the two kindergarten classes to see how much we raise over the period of 2 weeks. We also will have a group discussion on how the service learning has affected the students in our classrooms.

Demonstration: Students will be making “thinking of you” cards for the children, raising money, graphing their progress

Youth Voice and Choice:The students are the ones earning the money by taking the baggies home to their families. They will also be the ones making the “thinking of you” cards.

Curricular Connections:

English/Language Arts:

ELAKR6 The student gains meaning from orally presented text. The student
a. Listens to and reads a variety of literary (e.g., short stories, poems) and informational texts and materials to gain knowledge and for pleasure.

ELAKW1 The student begins to understand the principles of writing. The student
a. Writes or dictates to describe familiar persons, places, objects, or experiences.
b. Uses drawings, letters, and phonetically spelled words to create meaning.
c. Accurately prints name, all uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet, and teacher-selected words.
d. Uses left-to-right pattern of writing.
e. Begins to use capitalization at the beginning of sentences and punctuation (periods and question marks) at the end of sentences.
The student produces a persuasive piece that:
a. States an opinion.
b. May use words, illustrations, or graphics to support an opinion.
c. Begins to use formats appropriate to the genre (letter, poster).
d. May include describing words.

Mathematics: Graph the progress as the students earn money and learn the coin values.
MKN1. Students will connect numerals to the quantities they represent.

h. Identify coins by name and value (penny, nickel, dime, and quarter).
i. Count out pennies to buy items that together cost less than 30 cents.
j. Make fair trades using combinations involving pennies and nickels and pennies and dimes.

MKD1. Students will pose information questions, collect data, organize, and
display results using objects, pictures, and picture graphs.

Science: health

Social Studies: Character Education, Community Helpers

SSKCG2 The student will retell stories that illustrate positive character traits and will explain how the people in the stories show the qualities of honesty, patriotism, loyalty, courtesy, respect, truth, pride, self-control, moderation, and accomplishment.

SSKE1 The student will describe the work that people do (police officer, fire fighter, soldier, mail carrier, baker, farmer, doctor, and teacher).

Skill and Development: counting money, graphing, writing a letter

Books: Can I Catch Cancer? By Cristine Thomas
Chemo Girl by Christina Richmond
H is for Hair Fairy by Kim Martin
Butterfly kisses and Wishes on Wings by Ellen McVicker

Community contacts: The Rally Foundation

Stuffed Animals for Children in Need! (Jessica Wyatt and Christy Allgood)

Grade Level: 1st grade
Content: Children in need
Service Needed: Families lost everything due to the earthquake in Haiti. Children were left without families and belongings. Children in Georgia also have needs such as children in hospitals,children involved in car accidents, and children involved in the DFACS.
Service Idea: We will have students collect stuffed animals for children in need in these different areas. This service learning project was approved by the principal at Midway Elementary School.
Preparation: Students will learn about children in need around the world, relating it back to their town. A letter will be sent home to all students in the school about sending/donating stuffed animals for children in need. First grade students announced the service learning project on the morning announcements. Students will have to the beginning of Apirl to bring these stuffed animals in. We will be sending these off to different places that need them.
Reflection:Students are writing letters based on the information and pictures we showed them of children in need. This letters will be given along with the stuffed animals to different places.
Demonstration: Students will have a chance to create a card for children that are receiving these different animals.
Curriculum Connections:English/ Language Arts: Letter writing \ Social Studies:Map study
Skill Development: Writing and Map skills
Standard Used: SS1G2,SS1G3, ELAW1, ELA1R1
Community Contacts:1st Baptist Church in Covington, Georgia, Newton County DFACS, and The Covington Police Depart.

Building Character by Helping the School

GRADE LEVEL: Kindergarten

CONTENT--LEARNING ABOUT:

• Character Traits
• Cause and Effect

SERVICE NEED: There is a pile of woodchips on the playground. The students cannot play on the playground for several days after it rains because of the mud. If the students spread the woodchips, the pile would be out of the way and the students could play more quickly after rain showers.

SERVICE IDEA: Serve the school community by making the playground more usable.

PREPARATION: Students will listen to books about character traits such as courtesy, respect, pride, and accomplishment. We will talk about the cause of the mud and the effect that spreading the wood chips will have on the playground.

ACTION: Students will carry small buckets full of woodchips to the playground areas and pour the woodchips where they are needed. An adult will fill the buckets with woodchips and two adults will be directing students to make sure the woodchips are poured in the proper places.

REFLECTION: Students will journal about what they did to help the school, how it benefited other people, and how they feel as a result of their work.

DEMONSTRATION: We will ask the newspaper to come take photographs of the students working and get comments from some of the students.

YOUTH VOICE AND CHOICE: Students will discuss other actions that they could take to improve playground usability.

CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS:

English/Language Arts: Students will write journals after completion of service learning.

• ELAKR6.a, g, h
• ELAKW1.a, b, c, d, e
  
  
• ELAKW2.a, b, c, d, e (for narrative)
• ELAKLSV1.b, f, g

Social Studies: Students will learn about several character traits.

• SSKCG2

Science: Students will discuss the effects of the rain on the dirt and the woodchips.

• SKCS1.a
• SKP1.a, b

Other: Because students will be walking to move the woodchips, they will work their gross motor skills.

• PEK1.a, b

SKILL DEVELOPMENT:

• Writing narratives
• Determine cause and effect
• Demonstrating positive character traits

BOOKS:

• The Little Red Hen
• Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
• Cherries and Cherry Pits by Vera Williams

Community Contacts: Union Recorder

______________________________________________

Photographs of Wet Playground: It rained for three days straight, then was sunny for three days prior to these photographs.









Evidence of Approval





Evidence of implementation

Evidence of Student Reflection

CM reflects: "We helped the school by picking up the woodchips."

D.D. reflects: "This is me going to get some more woodships. Miss Bales, I thought it was a good thing to do."

M.W. reflects: "Yesterday we put a lot of woodhips on the playground and hopefully the woodchips will cover the dirt."

Helping others through Heifer International (Kindergarten) Rebecca Robinson

Planning for Service Learning

Grade level: Kindergarten

Content-learning about:

-farming

-goods and services

Service Need:

People around the world need a way to make a living. By providing livestock we can provide a way for them to make an income as well as a way to fight hunger.

Service Idea:

Raise money for Heifer International. Donate livestock to people who need to make a living.

GOAL= $20

Preparation:

Study farms and what farmers do in order to have an income.

Action:

Students will raise money by participating in an ongoing jump-rope-a-thon during recess.

Reflection:

We will keep a chart showing the progress the class has made towards our goal and how much money they have raised. (Money will be turned in all at once at the end of the project.)

Youth Voice and Choice:

The students are the ones earning the money. They will get sponsors and they will choose to jump rope at recess (or not to jump rope).

Curricular Connections:

Ø English/Language Arts: students will describe people, places, things locations and actions

related to the farm (ELAKLSV)

Ø Social Studies/History: study farmers and work that they do and how they earn income

(SSKE1, SSKE2)

Ø Mathematics: Graph the progress as the students earn money

Ø Science: students will learn about the needs of living things and how to provide for them.

(SKCS6)

Ø Other: Participates in fitness and conditioning activities (PEK 4.1)

Skill and Development:

-counting money

-graphing

-working in personal space

Community contacts:

Friends family and community members willing to sponsor the children

Heifer international

Water for the Thirsty

Water For the Thirsty

Anna Loudermilk, Samantha Worley, B.J. Kearns, Michelle Kitchens,

Elizabeth Lunsford, and Carley Wethern

"Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven."

~Henry Ward Beecher

Content (Learning about)

Earthquakes

Geography/Map Skills

Graphing data

Exploring Culture

Fractions

Composing Friendly Letters

Service Need

The people of Haiti are lacking basic needs such as food, water, and shelter due to the recent earthquake that destroyed homes and took the lives of many. If students and the community are made aware of the continued need for supplies such as drinking water, they can be encouraged to choose to aid in supplying the people of Haiti with suitable drinking water.

Service Idea

(Collecting Bottled Water for Haiti)

To encourage awareness of global issues and to promote students to become conscientious members of their world.

Preparation

Make connections for delivery of the water that we collect

Research the vast need of water

Make connections throughout grade levels with teachers that will partner with us

Plan learning experiences to make our students aware of geographic Location of Haiti

The body's need for water

The amount of water needed among the Haitian communities

Make the local newspaper aware of the efforts

Notes From Meeting With Principal
On February 24, 2010, the senior student teachers met with Dr. Sallad
to discuss the planning and implementation of a Service Learning
Project that would encourage students to become aware of global issues
as a result of implementing valuable learning experiences. These
experiences will encourage students to make a difference in the lives
of others. The decision was made that we would educate students about
Haiti, the recent earthquake that caused destruction and the basic
needs of those in Haiti at this time. After educating the students
about Haiti, we will ask the students to collect bottled water to send
to Haiti. Dr. Sallad approved the project.

Demonstration

Students throughout grade levels will collect bottled water and bring it to school for a week.

Each grade level will set a grade level goal for themselves and if they reach that goal they will be rewarded.

Displays of the amount of water collected by each grade level will be present in a common area of the school in order for the students to monitor their progression toward their goals.

Action
As students learn about Haiti and the earthquake that has recently occurred, they will begin to be able to connect themselves to this nation. Hopefully, students will be able to understand the need for the water and feel a sense of pride by taking action by:
Creating commercials
Making posters
Writing letters
Writing to persuading Milledgeville businesses to become involved
Contributing bottles of water

Curricular Connections

ELA: Write encouraging friendly letters to children of Haiti / Cause and Effect

Social Studies/History: Geography/Map Skills/ Cultural Study

Mathematics: Mathematics activities and problems based upon the quantity of water

collected (fractions, graphs, word problems, percentages, etc.)

Science: Discuss Earthquakes (cause and effect)

Languages: Show a clip of the people of Haiti speaking in their native language while discussing the culture of Haiti

Art and Music: Students will design posters to encourage donations; a video clip will be

shown to celebrate the music of the people of Haiti

Other: Video and computer technology will be utilized to locate Haiti, view photographs

and videos of the people as well as the devastation caused by the recent

earthquake.

Books

Tap~Tap by Karen Lynn WilliamsSelavi

That is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope by Youme Landown

Circles Of Hope By Karen Lynn Williams

Jump into Science: Earthquakes by Ellen J. Prager, Susan Greenstein

Community Contacts

• GCSU Give Center

• The Union Recorder

• The Baldwin Bulletin

Youth Voice and Choice

The students within each classroom vote to set a goal for their homeroom class and also their grade level to reach. The students will brainstorm and create ways to encourage others to participate.

Reflection
Students in all of the classes that we are in held group discussions about what they were doing to help. They talked about how it made them feel to help and what it might mean to the people of Haiti for us to send them the water.We revived wonderful insight into the minds of these children and what it means to them to be able to help someone. They were also full of ideas and willing to give freely of themselves to help another nation. Students really participated in an ongoing reflection process through free writing, creating posters, drawing, creating songs, writing commercials, and writing letters.

Students Made Posters

Students Wrote Commercials, Songs, and Letters

Students participated in the hanging of the posters and the collecting of the water.

Notes

We are asking for students to bring in donations of water rather than monetary donations so that the students can visualize their gift to a struggling nation. We are also doing this in response to concerns about the frequency of which the students are asked for monetary donations to charity. We are hoping to instill a sense of caring and consideration for those less fortunate as we encourage the students to donate drinking water.