Kindergarten was so excited about earning money to help people. It was gratifying to have so many individual students running up to me with little bags of coins telling me how they helped sweep or clean up after dinner or wash their dog to help people who didn’t have food. In service learning at Trinity, teachers offer guidance, but it is the students who decide who they will help based on their knowledge and interest. Once they express what they know and choose who to help, we build on that to increase their awareness and empathy. Kindergarten was interested in people who don’t have enough food. In our initial discussion, we helped expand their thinking to people in other countries. We talked about different ways to help and suggested that there might be ways to help where people could keep getting food instead of only getting food one time. After generating some great ideas including fruit trees and cows, we looked at the websites of World Vision and Heifer International and were excited to find some of their ideas were there, along with some new ones. Students picked several items and because Kindergarteners were such hard workers – we were able to support all of them! Kindergarten helped buy some vegetable seeds, fruit trees, a beehive, part of a fish pond system, support for a goat, and some chickens! Great job Kindergarten! We continued our learning by drawing pictures of the items and students coming up with sentences explaining why these things helped people keep having food. Finally, students shared their pictures and words in family chapel. To see all pictures and read their words, please visit vidigami: https://www.vidigami.com/trinityschool/albums/239105/media
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Students in Grade 4 had several ideas for their service learning project but it quickly became apparent that their biggest area of interest was addiction - particularly addiction to video games along with concerns about smoking. In many classes there is a close vote when we decide on a project, but this was a time where the decision was close to unanimous. We further decided to focus on gaming for the whole school and smoking and vaping for the upper grades. Please see more pictures in Vidigami: https://www.vidigami.com/trinityschool/albums/231178/media The class learned about what addiction means in your brain and that gaming addiction is now recognized, although it is rare. We talked about what is positive about games and when you might be playing too much and it becomes a problem. Students created a chapel presentation including posters, comic, video, and keynote highlighting items such as: - Gaming being a problem if you argue with your parents when they tell you to stop or you regularly keep playing past your time limit - Gaming being a problem if your games are making you really angry when you lose or you are thinking about playing all the time - All the fun things you can do instead of playing video games, especially with your friends - How YOU should be the one to balance your time, making choices to do other activities or playing for a time and then devoting the same time to something else Another group of students presented about smoking and vaping to Grades 3-5. The main thing they already knew is that smoking damages your lungs and turns them black. We learned that vaping doesn't do this, but it is still very harmful because it has even more nicotine than cigarettes which one of the students, Daphne, described in her presentation as "poison for your brain." Another student, Jerremy depicted addiction as "your body will nag you until you get it and you will feel like you need it like water." We discovered that nicotine impairs brain development and is especially harmful for kids and teens, even though it is marketed in fun flavors. "This is false advertising!" Zain declared in his keynote about companies claiming that vaping isn't harmful because it doesn't have tar and tobacco.
I am so proud of all our students for their hard work and enthusiasm in earning money for Penny Panic. After several days of counting money with each class, the results are in. As a school, we raised $2,188.59 for all our classes' service projects for the school year helping people and our world. Great job everyone! Some highlights:
- So many students excitedly sharing how they made money with bake sales and doing chores and being so proud bringing in their hard-earned coins and cash. - Grade 1 breaking the record for their grade and making $478.70! They had a goal of making $200 so that they could support two different service projects: refugees (coming up soon) and endangered animals (in Spring), and they greatly surpassed that goal! - Kindergarten coming in stronger than many years with $141.84 to help with sustainable food sources for people in need in other countries (also coming soon!) - Grade 5 winning the upper grade contest, but moreso, feeling pleased with all the money they were able to bring when they counted it up. Please view more pictures of Penny Panic and counting money on Vidigami https://www.vidigami.com/trinityschool/albums/221512/media Today kicked off our annual service learning fund raiser, Penny Panic, where students earn and bring their own money (all kinds, not just pennies) for our school's service learning projects throughout the year. As we progress through the year, each grade will choose world issues and decide how to donate their portion of the Penny Panic money along with researching and presenting to the school. Students have been working hard creating posters, hiding pennies in classrooms as daily reminders, making coupons, and, of course, earning their money! "You never know how many more pennies it takes to save another life." - Michelle, Grade 5 "Think if you were homeless, how good would you feel if someone gave you money. Honestly, the coolest people are the generous ones." - Zain, Grade 4 One of the most valuable aspects of Penny Panic for students is that they earn their own money. Here are some students' comments:
"If your mom just gives you money, its not like doing anything. Its also more fun because you get to earn something to help people." - Charlotte, Grade 2 "If you get money from someone then YOU aren't really helping, just the person you got the money from." - Emma, Grade 3 This year, we had an important discussion with Mr. Matt in chapel about whether or not students should have an ice cream party prize for earning money. We were proud of the students' understanding and generous spirits. Here are some comments from students about why we should give all our money to help and what our motivations should be for earning and giving. "It defeats the purpose of doing it if you're doing it to help yourself, not others." - Ilsa, Grade 5 "We should help because it is the right thing to do." - Gabriel, Grade 3 "Helping other people is better than just keeping things you don't need." - Jerremy, Grade 4 We should not use the money for ice cream, but give it to the homeless and people who need it, because we don't really NEED ice cream, but other people really NEED food." - Dominik, Grade 4 Penny Panic will continue this Friday and next Monday and Tuesday so encourage and help your student to earn money this weekend! Here is a link to more pictures: https://www.vidigami.com/trinityschool/albums/221512/media |