1. The Food Drive:
Our holiday food drive has begun and last week I noticed that some teachers wrapped their food drive boxes... which really added a nice little touch. Well, we recently started our unit on measurement so I thought it'd be fun to give my students a meaningful way to apply the concept of area. I gave THEM the challenge of 'wrapping' the boxes. I hate wrapping presents, so this took the pressure off me, haha!!
First, they estimated how much paper they needed to wrap the food drive boxes...
and then the wrapping began!
How are your estimating skills when it comes to guessing how much wrapping paper you need for a present? I always seem to cut off too much wrapping paper...or not enough! These munchkins did AMAZING compared to me ;)
By the way, this project wasn't just great for math. My class consists mostly of ESL students, so many of them were unable to explain the word "area" when I asked them to tell me what they knew about this math term. Many of them said that it meant 'where they lived'. Well, after this hands-on lesson they realized that AREA can have MULTIPLE MEANINGS. Teaching vocabulary in a meaningful and hands-on way really helps my ESL students grasp new concepts as well as academic vocabulary.
Look at all the food that has been donated so far... and we're still collecting!
2. Giving to a Family In Need:
Each year, the social worker at our school nominates a family in our community who is in need of some holiday cheer. The family nominated this year included a single mother and her 6 young children. The family was asked to write up a wish list and the school then came together to make the family's Christmas wishes come true! Most of the wishes included bare necessities like snow pants, clothes and food... looking at the wish list really made me realize how much I have to be thankful for.
After all the presents are collected, teachers volunteer one day after school and wrap the presents before giving them away! Can you just imagine how delighted these 6 kids will be on Christmas morning! I wish I could be a fly on the wall!
3. Canadian Tire Money
I'm from Canada... so this concept might seem strange to you if you don't have a store like Canadian Tire where you're from. With every purchase, a buyer receives Canadian Tire money... it's kind of like a rewards system but instead of collecting points, you collect money in the store's 'currency'. Now, here's the deal with Canadian Tire money... any Canadian will tell you that they have wads of this money laying around random parts of their house...and I don't think anyone actually uses it towards their next purchase because let's face it, these bills are worth pennies.. usually anywhere from 5 cents to 50 cents.
Sooo... a brilliant teacher at my school, Stella, had the idea of collecting Canadian Tire money and using it to purchase gifts for sick kids at the hospital near our school. During a time when students' families might be strapped for cash, this is such an easy way to collect money without putting any sort of pressure on families to donate during a time when money can be tight.
I think parents were MORE than happy to give away their Canadian Tire money... the school raised over $200!!! That's a lot when you consider the fact that most of these bills are worth 5 cents!
I loved how my pal made math so meaningful for her grade 3's. First, they had to add up all the money they collected. Then they used Canadian Tire fliers to make decisions about what presents they could afford to buy!! The last part required planning a budget, and lots of adding and subtracting with decimals...all in a completely meaningful way. I doubt the kiddos even realized they were doing so much math. Don't you love when that happens!!
What are you doing at your school to give back to the community? I'd love to hear your amazing ideas!
Click below to check out my Cinnamon's Synonyms blog as well :)
I love the idea of the school coming together to collect something that seems minuscule by itself, but makes a big difference when combined!
ReplyDeleteKrista Mahan