What is service learning?
Service learning is a type of project that combines classroom learning with a type of community service. All of our projects include research, reading, mathematical, and organizational skills. Students get to work with three main service-learning projects for the year - the 9/11 Care Package Project, The Guest House, and The Sandwich Project. Read about those projects below.
9/11 Care Package project
Last year was our first time working on this project, but it was a lot of fun! We chose a soldier who would be a grateful recipient of a care package. Students and families sent in items for the soldier, and we wrote letters and made cards. We also included a picture of our class so our soldier would know whose caring hands packed it. Our soldier even wrote back to us! What a great time to recognize some of our nations heroes.
The GUest House
Every year, my students visit The Guest House to tell stories, sing songs, give presentations, and just visit. From their Facebook page: "Since 1985, The Guest House has been providing services to older adults who benefit from socialization or require supervision during the day. Many of our clients have Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or other chronic illness and are not able to care for themselves alone.
Caregivers trust our supervised care during the day for their Senior loved one. They have peace of mind and can take care of business, hold jobs or just get some rest while day medical care and activities are keeping their loved one safe."
We love being able to work with our seniors! Information on this service learning project will come home throughout the year.
Caregivers trust our supervised care during the day for their Senior loved one. They have peace of mind and can take care of business, hold jobs or just get some rest while day medical care and activities are keeping their loved one safe."
We love being able to work with our seniors! Information on this service learning project will come home throughout the year.
the sandwich project
In September of 2010, I decided to read one of my favorite picture books to my fifth grade students. Little did I know it would be the start of something amazing...
I like to use picture books even though I teach fifth grade. To leave these books out of my reading class would be denying my students exposure to some wonderful literature. As an added bonus, picture books can be read, start to finish, in one class period. These books also often have rich details about character and setting, and we can reach the resolution of a conflict quickly.
This one particular school day, I was going to read Something Beautiful, written by Sharon Dennis Wyeth and illustrated by Chris K. Soentpiet. I met the illustrator at a reading conference, and he generously autographed my copy of this beloved book. This is a beautiful story, and I have loved it for a long time because of that. However, I have a weakness for autographs, so that made this book even better in my eyes!
In the book, the main character, a little girl in an inner-city neighborhood, goes on a search for “something beautiful.” She sees the word “DIE” graffitied on her door, she passes a homeless woman wrapped in plastic outside of her cardboard shelter, and broken bottles in the alley. She polls her friends, neighbors, and family to find something beautiful, and finds that beauty can be found everywhere you look: in a baby’s laugh, in the sound of beads in a girl’s hair, in the fresh fruit at a produce stand. She decides to clean up the ugliness around her. She says, “I feel powerful.” At the end of the book, she asks her mom if she has anything beautiful. This is where, even though I read this every year to my students, I begin to cry. The mom tells her, “Of course. I have you.”
This book, as I said, is a lovely story with stunning illustrations. I had planned, in my opinion, a quality standards-based lesson about the setting influencing the conflict in the story. My students, however, had a different plan in mind.
As always, we discussed what from the book stood out to us. Immediately, one of the students said he was very bothered by the part with the homeless woman, and he said he was sad for her. Other students began to agree aloud. Another student mentioned that she had seen the article in the local newspaper about homeless people in our own community who were living under a bridge and about how tough life was for them.
In a matter of minutes, we were off the track I had planned. I like to redirect the students when they start to lose focus on the standard I’m teaching, but something inside of me said to let them keep going. Deep down, I knew this was a teachable moment I couldn’t let slip through my fingers.
So, we kept talking about the homeless situation in our hometown. What can we do about it? I remember, with a smile, that the students wanted to do a bake sale and buy houses for the homeless. What big dreams! I told them, however, that I didn’t think we needed to throw money at the problem; instead, we needed to use our hearts and our hands.
I gave them homework that night - to go home and think about what we could physically do that would show love and compassion for the homeless in Gainesville.
The next day, we had another discussion about our newest endeavor. We decided that we could make sandwiches for the homeless, especially since so many of the students were worried about them being hungry. We called this endeavor “The Sandwich Project.”
I asked the students if they’d like to make sandwiches the next week, and they all shouted, “No! Let’s do it now!” I told the children I’d email their parents asking them to send in supplies for the following Friday, but that wasn’t fast enough for these kids. I then told them that their parents would not be happy with me if I demanded supplies immediately. Unfortunately, even though I have a weakness for autographs, I have an even bigger weakness for puppy dog eyes. With 25 pairs of puppy dog eyes breaking down my attempt at a steely exterior, I gave in and sent an email to all of my students’ parents, describing what had happened and what the kids wanted to do about it.
Imagine my surprise, when in just a few minutes, I had several email responses from the parents, saying, “I’ll bring bread,” or “I’ll send in some peanut butter!” The kids were ecstatic, and truthfully, I was too.
The next day, we spent an hour making 25 lunches for the homeless under the bridge. Some students made sandwiches, other students bagged the sandwiches up; some decorated brown bags for the lunches, some packed pretzels into baggies, and some added cookies. We completed the sack lunches with napkins and mints, and I sent them off with a local ministry contact who visits the bridge.
After we completed the first ever sandwich-making-day for The Sandwich Project, I asked the students to write me a letter to reflect on the experience. Never before have I cried upon reading student writings like I did that day. Students wrote, “I feel powerful.” (They remembered, from the book.) Some wrote that they now understood what it meant when people say that one person can make a difference. They wanted to keep doing it, and they wanted to do even more.
We decided to make sandwiches once a month. Our first attempt took us an hour to make 25 lunches. We finished the year making nearly 100 lunches in an hour. I guess you could say we perfected the technique!
Parents were our lifesavers - they sent in all the supplies to make this possible. Without 100% parent support, The Sandwich Project might have only been a one-time thing, if even that. I owe them a debt of gratitude.
Students never lost their enthusiasm for making lunches. The inspirational messages that decorated the bags were heartfelt. The students had to work extra hard during sandwich-making weeks; I never gave them less work just because we spent a class period making lunches. They knew they had to work harder in order to do it, but that never stopped them from making sure we took the time to help others who are less fortunate.
I heard from some of the parents that it had become a dinnertime topic in their families, and that they were looking into other ways to help the needy in our community as a family. I hope they continue to be inspired because of The Sandwich Project. It’s been something like tossing a pebble into a quiet pond; the goodness is rippling outwards. It’s been a beautiful thing to witness.
By the end of the year, we fed the homeless with over 200 lunches. Wow! Just thinking about makes me smile. I have been blessed to teach such generous students. Even if they chose to throw my lesson plans out the window. And I’m glad they did.
UPDATE: June 2014
The entire 5th grade at Centennial has worked on this project together for a few years now. Once a year, each 5th grade class partners with a 2nd grade class to make lunches. It has turned into a very special project, indeed!
I like to use picture books even though I teach fifth grade. To leave these books out of my reading class would be denying my students exposure to some wonderful literature. As an added bonus, picture books can be read, start to finish, in one class period. These books also often have rich details about character and setting, and we can reach the resolution of a conflict quickly.
This one particular school day, I was going to read Something Beautiful, written by Sharon Dennis Wyeth and illustrated by Chris K. Soentpiet. I met the illustrator at a reading conference, and he generously autographed my copy of this beloved book. This is a beautiful story, and I have loved it for a long time because of that. However, I have a weakness for autographs, so that made this book even better in my eyes!
In the book, the main character, a little girl in an inner-city neighborhood, goes on a search for “something beautiful.” She sees the word “DIE” graffitied on her door, she passes a homeless woman wrapped in plastic outside of her cardboard shelter, and broken bottles in the alley. She polls her friends, neighbors, and family to find something beautiful, and finds that beauty can be found everywhere you look: in a baby’s laugh, in the sound of beads in a girl’s hair, in the fresh fruit at a produce stand. She decides to clean up the ugliness around her. She says, “I feel powerful.” At the end of the book, she asks her mom if she has anything beautiful. This is where, even though I read this every year to my students, I begin to cry. The mom tells her, “Of course. I have you.”
This book, as I said, is a lovely story with stunning illustrations. I had planned, in my opinion, a quality standards-based lesson about the setting influencing the conflict in the story. My students, however, had a different plan in mind.
As always, we discussed what from the book stood out to us. Immediately, one of the students said he was very bothered by the part with the homeless woman, and he said he was sad for her. Other students began to agree aloud. Another student mentioned that she had seen the article in the local newspaper about homeless people in our own community who were living under a bridge and about how tough life was for them.
In a matter of minutes, we were off the track I had planned. I like to redirect the students when they start to lose focus on the standard I’m teaching, but something inside of me said to let them keep going. Deep down, I knew this was a teachable moment I couldn’t let slip through my fingers.
So, we kept talking about the homeless situation in our hometown. What can we do about it? I remember, with a smile, that the students wanted to do a bake sale and buy houses for the homeless. What big dreams! I told them, however, that I didn’t think we needed to throw money at the problem; instead, we needed to use our hearts and our hands.
I gave them homework that night - to go home and think about what we could physically do that would show love and compassion for the homeless in Gainesville.
The next day, we had another discussion about our newest endeavor. We decided that we could make sandwiches for the homeless, especially since so many of the students were worried about them being hungry. We called this endeavor “The Sandwich Project.”
I asked the students if they’d like to make sandwiches the next week, and they all shouted, “No! Let’s do it now!” I told the children I’d email their parents asking them to send in supplies for the following Friday, but that wasn’t fast enough for these kids. I then told them that their parents would not be happy with me if I demanded supplies immediately. Unfortunately, even though I have a weakness for autographs, I have an even bigger weakness for puppy dog eyes. With 25 pairs of puppy dog eyes breaking down my attempt at a steely exterior, I gave in and sent an email to all of my students’ parents, describing what had happened and what the kids wanted to do about it.
Imagine my surprise, when in just a few minutes, I had several email responses from the parents, saying, “I’ll bring bread,” or “I’ll send in some peanut butter!” The kids were ecstatic, and truthfully, I was too.
The next day, we spent an hour making 25 lunches for the homeless under the bridge. Some students made sandwiches, other students bagged the sandwiches up; some decorated brown bags for the lunches, some packed pretzels into baggies, and some added cookies. We completed the sack lunches with napkins and mints, and I sent them off with a local ministry contact who visits the bridge.
After we completed the first ever sandwich-making-day for The Sandwich Project, I asked the students to write me a letter to reflect on the experience. Never before have I cried upon reading student writings like I did that day. Students wrote, “I feel powerful.” (They remembered, from the book.) Some wrote that they now understood what it meant when people say that one person can make a difference. They wanted to keep doing it, and they wanted to do even more.
We decided to make sandwiches once a month. Our first attempt took us an hour to make 25 lunches. We finished the year making nearly 100 lunches in an hour. I guess you could say we perfected the technique!
Parents were our lifesavers - they sent in all the supplies to make this possible. Without 100% parent support, The Sandwich Project might have only been a one-time thing, if even that. I owe them a debt of gratitude.
Students never lost their enthusiasm for making lunches. The inspirational messages that decorated the bags were heartfelt. The students had to work extra hard during sandwich-making weeks; I never gave them less work just because we spent a class period making lunches. They knew they had to work harder in order to do it, but that never stopped them from making sure we took the time to help others who are less fortunate.
I heard from some of the parents that it had become a dinnertime topic in their families, and that they were looking into other ways to help the needy in our community as a family. I hope they continue to be inspired because of The Sandwich Project. It’s been something like tossing a pebble into a quiet pond; the goodness is rippling outwards. It’s been a beautiful thing to witness.
By the end of the year, we fed the homeless with over 200 lunches. Wow! Just thinking about makes me smile. I have been blessed to teach such generous students. Even if they chose to throw my lesson plans out the window. And I’m glad they did.
UPDATE: June 2014
The entire 5th grade at Centennial has worked on this project together for a few years now. Once a year, each 5th grade class partners with a 2nd grade class to make lunches. It has turned into a very special project, indeed!
