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.

Promoting Bus Safety - Tiffany Bozett

Grade Level: 2

Content – Learning About:

Safe Practices

Relaying Information

Promotion of Safety

Service Need: Recently the community lost a member during a bus incident. Children in my homeroom class were shaken and it became a topic of discussion. We all had a classroom meeting to settle their feelings and the matter was addressed. During this meeting, many of the students expressed concern for other students and busses.

Service Idea: Bus Safety 101

Promotion of bus safety at the school and community, using flyers and posters.

Preparation: A guest speaker will discuss procedures to be safe while on the school bus. We will highlight the key points and select who will represent the topics. At this time we will mention the appropriateness of discussing the student’s passing during the accident so that it will not bring up past feelings.

Action: Preplan and design the flyers and posters, which promotes bus safety practices. Place them at strategic locations in the school. During the morning time for a week, two students will stand in the entryway to hand out flyers and talk about bus safety with other students.

Reflection: Before the speaker and project, the students will record their understanding of bus safety. After we have completed the project, the students will reevaluate their list and we will discuss new concepts and see how well they follow the procedures.

Demonstration: The students may act out a good bus safety procedure versus bad safety for other second grade homeroom classes.

Youth Voice and Choice: Students will be creating flyers and posters using their own view and artistic style. The will also design a way to promote bus safety to display while they speak with students in the morning time. Once they are assigned a task, they will have freedom to express their views in their own style.

Curricular Connections:

English/Language Arts: Writings will be displayed on a tri-fold explaining their images.

Social Studies: A community speaker will discuss safe procedures.

Arts/Crafts: The students will create posters and flyers.

Skill Development:

Writing persuasive and informative pieces.

Artistic, theatric, and oral expression

Books:

A Kid's Guide to Staying Safe at School by Maribeth Boelts

Community Contacts:

Transportation Department

Service Learning Project - Kirsten Allen and Meredith Grant

Grade Level:
1st and 3rd
Content - Learning About:
-Compassion for others
-Involvement in the community
-Generosity
Service Need:
The Children's Hospital needs toys, games, and clothing for patients. Allowing students to make donations and write letters will provide them with a sense of purpose within their own community.
Service Idea:
Collect needed materials to donate to the Children's Hospital.
Preparation:
Share literature with students in order to encourage them to make connections between the service project and their own lives and allow students to share personal stories.
Action:
Send a parent letter home with information regarding donations, provide each classroom with a box to store donated items, create a goal charting thermometer for each classroom, explain project to students, and write letters to patients.
Reflection:
Daily discussion of topic during mini-lesson of writer's workshop.
Demonstration:
Classroom representatives will share about their community contributions over the school wide news show.
Youth Voice and Choice:
A student in 3rd grade was hospitalized in December at the Medical Center. Her younger sister is in 1st grade. After seeing the positive impact of the cards sent to her during her time in the hospital, the students decided it was important to do the same for other children that were patients at the hospital.
Curricular Connections:
Language Arts- Students will demonstrate knowledge of letter writing by writing encouraging and positive letters to the patients at the Children's Hospital.
Art- Students will design cards with encouraging messages to send to patients at the Children's Hospital.
Skill Development:
-Letter Writing
Community Contacts:
-Samie Griffis (Child Life Specialist Intern at Children's Hospital at the Medical Center of Central Georgia)
Notes:
This activity began in one 1st grade and one 3rd grade classroom, but spread to include both grade levels.

Letters to Soldiers - 2nd and 3rd grade (Maggie, Linda, Lisa)

CONTENT-LEARNING ABOUT
Friendly letter
Positive citizenship
Liberty
Honor
Government
Map Skills/Geography
Measurement
Elapsed Time
Informational writing

SERVICE NEED
For students to understand that soldiers fight everyday in foreign countries so that we can go to school, live the way we do, and enjoy our freedom. Students need to understand that soldiers are regular people: they are moms, dads, sisters, brother, sons, daughters, and members of our community. Students also need to understand that by serving for their country, soldiers and other military show liberty, citizenship, and honor. Students will learn that we should show our support and appreciation for those who serve in the military.

SERVICE IDEA
Promote awareness of soldiers and those who serve in the military and have students show their appreciation.

PREPARATION
Students will read literature on the military to learn what it is like to be in the military and to have family members in the military and what soldiers are overseas for. They will study maps to see the distance between where they live and where the soldiers are located. Students have already begun practice writing friendly letters, but will be reviewed. Students will brainstorm other things that they would like to tell the soldiers. Students will learn about the environments of places where the military are stationed overseas, and will infer what types of items the soldiers need in those places.

ACTION
Students will write friendly letters to the soldiers of appreciation and express what they have learned about what the soldiers are doing. They will also illustrate what freedom means to them.
Students will put together care packages for the soldiers based on what we have learned they need.

REFLECTION
Students will keep a journal of what they have learned throughout the process. They will express what they think it would be like to have a parent or guardian in the military and also what they think it would be like to serve in the military.

DEMONSTRATION
Students will write an informational piece and illustrate it on people who serve in the military: why they serve, what they do, where they serve, what they wear, etc. They will also brainstorm ways that we can support those who serve in the military.

YOUTH CHOICE AND VOICE
Students brainstormed ways that they can help/affect the community. The students decided to write letters to soldiers because some of their peers have family in the military. They will come up with ways that they can show their support for military.

CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS
LANGUAGE ARTS-Write friendly letters to the soldiers, write informational pieces on what soldiers do and how they affect our community, read several pieces of literature about the military.
SOCIAL STUDIES/HISTORY-Study on citizenship, liberty, honor, map skills, geography, government
MATHEMATICS-Measurement/Distance/Elapsed Time
SCIENCE-Measurement/Communicates findings
ART AND MUSIC-Illustration to go along with informational piece, exploration of songs written about or by soldiers.
OTHER-Technology and video

SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Friendly letters
Informational writing
Map skills
Time

BOOKS
Red, White, and Blue Goodbye by Sarah Wones

COMMUNITY CONTACTS
Members of the community/family members of students who serve or have served in the military
Grocery stores for boxes

Children's Miracle Network

Grade Level: 1st
Content: Supporting children with cancer
Service Need: Raising money for children with cancer at Children's Miracle Network Hospital
Service Idea: Have students earn money at home to give as a donation to this cause. Each first grade class will also create an activity book and cards to send to children who are in the hospital currently.
Preparation: Discuss with the students the importance of them earning the money on their own, prior to beginning the project. Either a guest speaker from CMN will come in and speak to the students about her personal experience with cancer or a video of her will be shown to help the students understand what they are raising the money for.
Action: Students will be provided with some type of container to take home and put their earnings in. The students will also have to record in a log what they did to earn this money. At the end of each week, each first grade class will dump their total earnings into an even bigger jar to be passed around to the entire grade level. Each first grade class will take time to create activity pages for the book and later the pages will all be put together to form several activity books to send to the hospital.
Reflection: Students will reflect after the project on what they learned about the importance of earning money and donating money to others who may need it more than they do.
Demonstration: Set goals for the students to try and reach by the end of each week.
Curriculum Connections:
English/ Language Arts: Letter writing to the children in the hospitals
Social Studies/history: History of cancer ( how long has it been around, will it ever be cured)
Mathematics: Earning, counting, and saving money
Science: Topic of Cancer ( how it develops and forms, how to treat cancer)
Skill Development: Organization, Responsibility
Community Contacts: Child with cancer who is a part of Children's Miracle Network

Banding Together-Nicole DelBosque, Shelby Buchanan, Sarah Smith, Alyssa Gebhart

Grade Level: 3rd
Content: The GES Guardian Angel Fund & possibly Haiti
Services Needed: The Guardian Angel Fund helps support those in the Gray Elementary community that are going through hardships (with donations of money). Also, the country of Haiti has been in need since the devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010. The money we raise will be split between the two causes equally, if our profit allows.
Service Idea: The students in our four classes will make bracelets to sell to people at the school to raise funds for these causes. We will teach the students how to make them and they will promote/advertise and sell the bracelets.
Preparation: We will discuss what it means to help people in our community as well as people around the world. The students will brainstorm ideas and reasons to help others. We will do an interactive writing lesson to compose a letter to stores such as Wal-Mart to ask for donations of supplies to make the bracelets.
Demonstration: We have learned how to make the bracelets and will teach our students in groups how to make them. There are two styles, one more complex than the other to allow for differentiation.
Curriculum Connections: ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS (interactive writing lesson, making posters, writing blurps for the announcements), SOCIAL STUDIES (locating our town and the country of Haiti on a map, supply and demand, producers and consumers), MATH (making change, profit, addition & subtraction).

***********************************************************************************
First we presented the idea of having the students make bracelets to raise money for a charity to the teachers in our grade level meeting. The teachers were supportive of this idea and suggested we raise funds for the GES Guardian Angel Find that goes to faculty/families in our very own school. We agreed to this idea.
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The four of us met later to discuss how we are going to present the idea to the students, how to get money to start the fundraiser, and how to teach them how to make the bracelets. We decided that we'd all utilize days we don't have an exploratory to begin the project. We'd begin with an interactive writing lesson where we write to a store such as Wal-Mart or a local craft store to ask for a donation of supplies to fund our project. We also set up a time to meet with the principal (Mr. Patterson) to propose our idea.
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We met with our school principal and presented our project proposal to him. He approved our idea, and liked the idea of contributing the money to both a local cause as well as a global cause (Haiti). He instructed us to fill out a fundraiser approval form so he could submit it to the board office. Our fundraiser was approved by the board office.

PROOF OF APPROVED PLAN

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Each of us led our classes in a brainstorming session, and we guided their ideas toward the bracelets. Utilizing interactive writing (where different students physically contribute to the writing piece), we created letters to various corporations asking for donations of craft string. The next day, we edited our rough draft for spelling, punctuation, proper letter formation, etc.

Due to time constraints, the four of us decided to purchase the inexpensive craft string with our own money instead of actually sending the letters to the businesses. However, we told the students that the string was in fact donated so that they felt their efforts were rewarded. We decided that we needed to do this to get the ball rolling on the fundraiser, yet we wanted our students to feel a sense of community; that they're hard work resulted in a positive reaction from these companies. The craft string was fairly inexpensive, so it would have been a little silly to request such a tiny donation. It could have potentially taken weeks or even months to hear back from the businesses!

We allotted about two weeks for the production of the bracelets, utilizing any idol time and days we had no exploratory. A handful of children in my own class were with another teacher at the time I taught the students how to make the bracelets, but the ones who did learn ended up teaching the others how! Ms. Delbosque had the great suggestion to tape a few "in progress" bracelets to any spare/out of the way table so that if students finish morning work or class assignments early they always have something to work on during that extra time.



Advertising: Our students made posters and signs to display around the school. We also encouraged a few brave souls to create a morning announcement to say over the school intercom (they loved this---they felt famous!). During our non-exploratory days, each of us walked around to predetermined grade levels with a few students so that each class in the school got an up-close and personal advertisement.

The students made our first intercom announcement on Thursday, March 18th, but due to a 3-day weekend, the bracelet sales were pathetic at best on Monday morning the 22nd (we sold 4!). However, our students walked around to each table in the lunchroom during breakfast time and advertised yet again. The students and teachers from our four classes all wore a bracelet to sort of get the trend out there.

By the second and third days we sold $150 worth of bracelets, and we're not finished yet! We're even considering extending the sale dates another week. More to come!


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Our fundraising project was incredibly successful, exceeding our goal of $150-$200. We raised a smidge over $300, and have turned the money into the front office to be deposited into the "Guardian Angels" fund account. We collectively decided not to send a portion of the money to a Haiti Relief fund, only because we are aware of a LOT of families around our community that can and will benefit from the donation. The head of the Guardian Angels fund has offered to write each of us (student teachers) a letter confirming our participation and support so that we may put it in our portfolio for future use.

PROOF FROM RECIPIENT:



As for the most important part, our students; below are a few snippets from the journal entries we had them compose post-service. Some questions we suggested they use to begin their thinking include but were not limited to:

*How do you feel about the fact that together we raised $300?
*Did you enjoy this project?
*How might you feel if you were the recipient of some of this money?
*Was this difficult?
*What kind of reaction do you think the recipients will have when they get the money?
*What does the word "team" mean to you?
*Did you enjoy working with your peers to help others?


"If I was poor/homeless and I received the money I would feel great and think somebody cared for me. Doing this project made me think and care about the poor."


"It made me feel good, because I know its going to help a lot of people in need."


"I am proud what I did with my friends. It made me feel like I was important and they are too. I was very proud that I did something nice for once. I am happy and will always remember."


"I feel like I am being a good person. I feel that the people in need would feel appreciated. If I was that person and I got some money I would feel very thankful."


"I'm glad that we made the bracelets. I hope this helps the people in need then that will really make me happy."


"I feel good about helping people in need. Because I love helping people the best I can. I've helped lots of people but not like this. It's really fun helping people. Everyone should help somebody. I'm glad we came up with this idea."


"It makes me feel good to let people know that we care for them."


"I love it when we work as a team."


"We are very proud of ourselves. It makes us feel really good. The people that are getting the money will feel good. It makes me feel good in the inside for doing this."


"We can help our school and the world be a better place."


"It made me feel good from the outside to way deep in the inside you should try it one day."



:)

Ronald McDonald House by: Carrie Alexander, Kayleigh Lemaster, and Kaleigh Sidwell

Grade Level: 2nd
Content: Ronald McDonald House
Service Needed: Ronald McDonald Houses around the world offer families a way to stay together, in proximity to the treatment hospital, and be comfortable and cared for during their stay. We need to raise money, by collecting tabs, in order for these people to be able to stay near their loved ones.
Service Idea: In order to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House the students will be collecting tabs over a one month period. The classrooms will all be given a jug to fill and once filled the class will get to have a popcorn pajama party.
Preparation: Learn about the Ronald McDonald house. Distribute parent letters to all the second grade classrooms and containers for the tabs. Mrs. Brown will come and speak to the class about her stay in the Ronald McDonald house and the benefit of bringing in tabs. The students will have one month goal to fill their container in order to get the party.
Reflection:
Demonstration: Students can write letters to the families who are staying in the Ronald McDonald house. Write an article trying to get more people to participate and what the benefits in bringing in tabs can be.
Curriculum Connections:English/ Language Arts: Letter and article writing Mathematics: estimating the tabs
Skill Development: Writing, Estimation

Community Contacts: Ronald McDonald House, Guest Speaker- Mrs. Brown, Mr. Al to pick up the pop tabs