In our service learning program, students chose and research their own projects. In Grade 1, we started with a brainstorm of problems students are aware of in our community and the world with ideas ranging from homelessness to pollution to supporting our troops to endangered animals. After discussion, the vote was close between endangered animals and the rain forest, and they realized these are connected - so they could help both at once! Using books as guidelines, the students excitedly built their own rain forest to remind the school to conserve paper and be careful of litter, along with earning Penny Panic money to save rain forest acres. Students began their forest with tall trees, bushes, flowers, rocks, and water and added a river teaming with many kinds of undersea life (mostly) from the rain forest, insects, birds, jaguars, other animals, and many drops of rain as well. Here are some of their words about saving the rain forest: Arianna: If you destroy the rainforest, you might not realize, but you’re destroying animals’ homes and the environment where animals live. Animals make food for us that we need to survive. Everett: There are a lot of different kind of animals and they are very interesting, it is cool to learn about them. Nikita: People are cutting down the rain forest and that is habitats for animals and they are dying because they don’t have habitats to live in. It is sad to see animals dying. Bora: We should protect the rain forest or almost all animals in the world could go extinct. We really like animals. Niyaa: If people are cutting down the rain forest, then other people will think it is ok and they will do it too, and soon it will be gone and animals will die because they don’t have an environment to live in. Valentina: If there is litter in the rain forest, animals can eat it and they die. Trees give us oxygen so if we cut down too many trees, we won’t survive. A video of creating the rain forest and their thoughts about problems and saving it: vimeo.com/manage/videos/555528638 Enjoy more pictures in vidigami: www.vidigami.com/trinityschool/albums/327952/media
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Choosing our Service Project - Abandoned Pets and Homelessness It has been so fun to work with Grade 2 students this year who have been so engaged and super excited about their Service Learning Project. Service Learning at Trinity is student-led with students picking project ideas, doing research, deciding how to present, and interacting with organizations to determine ways to help. We started by brainstorming ideas as a class of problems in the world we would like to help with, ideas included homelessness, climate change, farming in poor countries, and abandoned pets. Students voted for abandoned pets with homelessness as their second choice. After contacting Pets in Need, a local shelter, we learned that they have just started a project with disadvantaged teens raising money to help support homeless pets. After a thoughtful class discussion about different situations of homelessness and what it would be like to become homeless but want to keep a pet, the class voted to give some of our money to this homeless pets project. They also want to support the shelter AND homelessness – such a kind-hearted group of kids! Penny Panic I am so impressed with how hard Grade 2 students worked earning money doing chores and with stands selling lemonade, cookies, bracelets and much more. Students really wanted a goal for Penny Panic (which we normally don't do) and voted on a “regular goal” of $300 and a “challenge goal” of $640 (which would be each student earning an average of $40). I must say I was surprised by the high level of excitement for reaching their challenge goal (the vote being unanimous) and what their money could do to help. Amazingly, students surpassed BOTH goals raising a total of $979.36 in Penny Panic, which combined with Timber Trot gives them $1098.11 to donate! Yesterday, they decided to give $500 to the homeless pets project because it combines their ideas and split the rest evenly between Pets in Need and LifeMoves, a network of shelters and services for people experiencing homelessness in the Bay Area. Pets in Need and Homeless Pets We learned about what Pets in Need does through exploring their website and zooming with them on May 7. They showed us the whole shelter including the exercise yard, kitten area, and vets. Students wrote and created this short video to present their project to the school, focusing on what the Pets in Need shelter does and the needs of people experiencing homelessness who want to keep pets. vimeo.com/546694163 Students also collected materials and made 2 boxes of pet toys for the dogs and cats at the Pets in Need shelter. Enjoy more pictures here: www.vidigami.com/trinityschool/albums/331705/media What do COVID and the Pacific Garbage Patch have in common? They are both major issues affecting our world today. Grade 3 had an animated discussion about their choices for their Service Learning project with strong opinions on which of these topics was "more important." We concluded that they are both important (along with many other issues) and decided to split their time and money between the two. I really enjoy the passion this class shows for wanting to help and make a difference. They will be continuing their Penny Panic earning next week for these causes, deciding to donate to the Ocean Cleanup and to look for where help is most needed for COVID globally. Help your student earn money this week! Students created these videos and this beautiful poster which they presented to the school on Monday. They wrote scripts and created scenes, then researched and added facts to their videos using google slides. Enjoy!
vimeo.com/547702726 Grade 4 students wanted to choose a big issue for their service learning project. After lots of ideas and a close choice between climate change and clean water, they decided to focus on clean water. Students worked at home in online groups during distance learning to create several projects to present in chapel explaining the facts of clean water including a slide show, models, animations, and videos (some of which I'm able to share here). They are hoping at some point in the Spring to come back to this project leading the school in a water walk and presenting further skits. When we do Penny Panic in the Spring, they have already found several organizations helping with wells, filtration, and education. This slide show presents several facts students learned about the need for clean water and problems caused by dirty water: Other students created models and pictures of how water gets dirty from animals, trash, washing, and run off; carrying water; water filtration; and the type of deep well needed in many parts of Africa because of the depth of the water level. Today turned out to be the perfect day for our first ever Service Leadership team meeting during the pandemic with the skies out everyone's windows reminding us of people we are trying to help. Students have been praying and asking how to help people affected by the fires, so we decided to have an optional Service Leadership Team meeting today to look at potential ways to help with our representatives Nathan (G4), Sophia (G4), Trinian (G4), Itzayana (G3) and Alexis (G3). Thanks reps for your time and care! What we found is the best way to help currently is to donate money, so we checked out some websites and are putting them out to our school community. We wish we could do something fun like the bake sale we did to earn money for fire victims last year, but we want to help even if we don't get to do an activity too. Here are the Team's recommendations if you are interested in donating. "We can call this an early Penny Panic since we are putting it off this year until Spring. Just like Penny Panic, students can earn their own money doing chores and things or use money they have saved. (parents can donate too). We have found four organizations, some do really big things which are really helpful and some do things that are kind of minor but still needed. It is important to do big and small things because we want to help as much as we can." The California Wildfire Relief Fund https://www.calfund.org/wildfire-relief-fund/ and Global Giving https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/california-wildfire-relief-fund/ for local relief to people who had to evacuate and/or lost homes: "People need places to stay, they don't have anywhere and it is hard with COVID to have shelters in places they might normally. People don't have shelter and also don't have food and water and everything else" California Fire Foundation https://www.cafirefoundation.org/about-us/california-fire-foundation-mission-statement/ "They help firefighters and their families, firefighters are so important helping people and we should be grateful and their families deserve help too since they are helping other people." Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter has been taking in pets for free during the fires https://www.scanimalshelter.org/ "We don't want pets to be lost or to die because they help our community. They cannot help themselves and need our help." Red Cross. https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation.html/ "This is a big major organization that takes care of lots of things in many places around the world. They have experience and are giving shelter and food and other things for the fires." Students were also able to make cards for firefighters thanking them for their bravery and hard work. You're amazing Trinity families! We had our first food drive before school even started this year - during our Meet and Greet time. I was delighted to see so many families remembering people in our community who are in need and bringing food and other necessary items. I am thrilled to announce that in this collection we brought more items than in any collection last year! I counted small things like snack packs and granola bars as only 1/2 an item (so every 2 counted as 1 thing) and even with that, we collected 722 items! Wow! It was wonderful to be able to drive into Ecumenical Hunger Fund, where there was a line of cars down the whole block of people waiting to get food, with the entire back of my van filled with your donations. What a terrific start to the year! It can become too easy during difficult times to focus solely on the hardships we are facing and the many things we are missing. In the midst of students' valid feelings of loss, anxiety, fear, and sadness (hopefully mixed with excitement too!) as this school year starts off campus, we want to provide an opportunity to reach out to those in our community who are struggling with basic security with a food drive when families come in for Meet and Greet Monday and Tuesday. In this pandemic and resulting economic hardship, the number of people relying on EHP for food and other essentials has gone way up. We can always help others out no matter what we are facing and can discover anew things to be thankful for in our own situations.
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It was a close vote for Grade 3 between our military and climate change, with several other great ideas for service projects suggested as well. Grade 3 liked the idea that we could send cards to troops (see pictures in the post on Big Help day where all students in Trinity School participated in making cards or letters) and wanted to learn more about the US military and what they do. We brainstormed questions they had and came up with different topics to learn more about. Four groups developed interactive stations for the school in rotations with clues leading between them. One of the topics of interest was what wars US soldiers have fought in. Several students had heard something about a historical war or had a family member or family friend who had served in a war. So, one group put together a timeline of all wars the US has been in and had students try to line up in the right order. Another important thing we learned about the military is that they do more than just fight. After research, the class came up with the overall theme that the US military is seeking to promote peace. One of the ways they promote peace is helping with natural disasters including the many disasters the National Guard helps with in the US, soldiers helping with disasters in countries they are stationed, and the military sending help for major disasters including two large Navy hospital ships Mercy and Comfort. One group of students developed a simulated tsunami with students getting cards for injuries or losses (even helping find lost pets!) and showed how the military would help with food, medical aid, blankets, and reuniting families. They then showed a poster they had created showing all the disasters the National Guard helps with and some facts abou the Navy hospital ships. Another group looked at the branches of the military and what they do. They created a multiple choice game where students moved into the hula hoop corresponding to the correct answer, and also found pictures of the military branches for a two-sided poster to share facts after the game. The final group looked at where the military is now and why. They assembled several facts, learning that our military still has a strong presence in Japan and Germany all the way from WWII, that we have troops fighting and training local people against terrorist and extremist groups, and that we have a lot of military deployed as a presence to stop possible conflicts, affirming our overall theme of the military promoting peace. This group wrote all their facts on index cards which they made into a puzzle. They hid the cards for every group of students who found them, read the facts, and assembled the puzzle.
A few weeks later, while we were all at home, the class looked at websites to decide how to donate our Penny Panic money to support our troops. They decided to give part of the money to Operation Care and Comfort, the organization our school was working with for Big Help Day to collect toiletries and send cards and letters. This organization collects donations for care packages and also supports troops' well-being in other ways such as helping with events like concerts or games. The class decided to give the other part of the money to an organization called Team Rubicon which recruits retired military to help with natural disasters. Thanks Grade 3 for your great work! Anticipation Trinity students, parents, and staff were excited to organize and participate in Trinity's very first Big Help Day, a day of serving and giving to people in need in our community. As we prepared, I was continually impressed by the tremendous amount of time given by our parent organizers, the students who came to help prepare at recess times, the many families who signed up to participate and donate, and student leaders creating presentations to lead in chapel. Anticipated activities included: assembling lunches for people experiencing homelessness, preparing and serving a dinner to families in Life Moves transitional housing shelter, having a crafts party for kids in the transitional shelter, creating cards and collecting food for low income elderly through Samaritan House, assembling kits of toiletries and making cards for deployed troops through Operation Care and Comfort, removing invasive species and planting native through Grassroots Ecology, and putting together activity kits and cards for kids at Stanford Children's Hospital. Whew! We plan big! Regrouping Unfortunately, as you all know, we sadly had to cancel the actual day. However, it was less than 24 hours before Trinity's community came together to reshape some of the activities so we could still help big! Food Drive Despite their own needs to stock up on food, Trinity families continued to donate even on the last day our school was able to meet on campus. When Samaritan house came Friday to pick up the barrels, the food couldn't fit and they needed some extra boxes and bags to get it all! Congratulations Trinity School on donating 272 items to low income elderly and others in need in our community! Letters and Toiletries for Soldiers Every grade in the school wrote letters and drew thankful pictures for members of our military deployed overseas. Letters were sent to Operation Care and Comfort and even now may be being read by our troops. Many Trinity families donated needed toiletry items. We didn't quite get to assembling and sending the toiletry kits before we started home learning, but they will be put together and sent out as soon as we get back. Honoring our Dinner Commitment There are so many people in increasing need right now. Trinity families decided to honor our commitment to the families in transitional shelter at Life Moves and make them dinner. Many families contributed food and three of our families got together Saturday to chop, mix, cook, and present a wonderful dinner which they delivered to the shelter. Still to Come
When we return to school, we will continue helping. Students in different grades will make cards for low income elderly, assemble the toiletry kits for our troops, put together crafts kits for Life Moves so they can have their own party, make lunches for people experiencing homelessness, and assemble activity kits for kids in the hospital. Thanks Trinity community for coming together with compassion, support, and flexibility to help so many in need around us. Grade 1 brainstormed many ideas about who they wanted to help this year with their Penny Panic money, and had a very close vote with refugees and endangered animals coming out on top. Since the class was so interested in both topics, we came up with a challenge that if they could make over $200 we would have enough money to help both – and they made $478.70, the most a Grade 1 class has ever brought! We decided to look at helping refugees in the fall and endangered animals in the spring near earth day. The class brainstormed what they already knew about refugees including that they have to leave their homes, often because of war, that they can’t bring very much with them, and that they often live in tents. We then moved into brainstorming what they need, making two categories: basic needs and other needs like comfort, toys, education, music, and art. We discussed how you can have your basic needs but that people need more than that to be happy. The class voted for four areas to support (we got to choose four instead of just two because they earned so much money) and decided on food, playgrounds, schools, and art, a nice mixture between basic needs and other needs. To share with the school, students voted to make videos using puppets they would create. In writing the videos, we focused on helping students think about how people would feel and why, expanding their understanding of the complexity of needs for refugees. Here are some lines students came up with for their videos:
“I am sad and scared. I am nervous.” (Ella) “I miss my paint stuff. If I had it, I could make some fun drawings to make me feel happy.” (Carolina) “I feel in the middle because we have a playground but I still don’t have a home and I’m kind of sad.” (Ayaan) “I am feeling sad because I don’t have the same food I’m used to eating.” (Alexandra) “We need a safe space to learn and make friends.” (Reece) Finally, with Mr. Williams’ help, we filmed in front of green screen so that students could choose actual images of refugee camps for the backgrounds. Please enjoy their videos in this padlet: https://trinity.padlet.org/kroybal1/ServiceLerningGrade1 |