Service Learning Project

Title of Project: Students Helping Soldiers

                 

Grade Level:  K-6th

Number of Students Participating: approximately 400 students

Contributed by:

            Teacher: Lisa Taylor

            School: Grandview Elementary

            District or County: Bellevue Independent

1)  Overview/Description of Project: Students will research ways to help soldiers and their families on the internet.  Students will  make posters to hang around the school and in the community advertising these ways that others can help, such as writing letters or donating items.  These items and letters will then be put together as care packages by the students and sent to the soldiers through a group called Operation Homefront.

2)  Who would be involved?: 

-teachers that are willing to let their class participate in the project (giving class time to research on the internet, create posters (by hand and using technology), writing letters to businesses to ask for posters to be hung, putting items together into care packages)

-local businesses that will allow posters to be hung in their place of business 

-Operation Homefront to take our donations and send them to the appropriate places

Operation Homefront Contact Information: 

http://www.operationhomefront.net/kentucky/

Operation Homefront of Kentucky and Tennessee

P.O. Box 2437

Fort Campbell, Kentucky  42223

Phone: 931-982-3207

Fax: 866-599-8934

Toll Free: 866-205-5766

3)  Standards:

• Students will write for a variety of authentic purposes and audiences
• Students will communicate a purpose through informing or persuading.
• Students will use technology to organize and develop creative solutions, ideas or products
• Students will incorporate persuasive techniques when appropriate (e.g. bandwagon, emotional appeal, testimonial, expert opinion)
• 
  

  Students will demonstrate awareness of the concept of responsibility to oneself and others
• 
  

  
  

  Students will express creativity both individually and collaboratively using technology

4)  How will the students benefit personally? 

Students will be doing something that will allow them to work together to help others.  Almost every student knows someone who is serving or who has served our country and they would like to feel as if they are contributing in some way.  It will help them develop an understanding of contributing to society while having fun in the process. 

5)  Timeline of Activities:

Step 1-Introduce the project to the students by  showing the following video and explaining what we will be doing to show our thanks to the soldiers. 

Step 2-Students will begin by researching ways they can help soldiers and their families. 

Some websites they may use:


http://www.kidsforourtroops.org/
http://anysoldier.com/WhatToSend.cfm
http://www.give2thetroops.org/
http://www.theahaconnection.com/2011/06/28/ways-children-can-honor-soldiers-this-4th-of-july/
http://www.ehow.com/how_5119289_become-penpal-soldier-overseas.html


Step 3-making posters asking for items to be donated and letters to be written. 

Step 4-Students will hang posters around the school.

Step 5-Students will be selected to write letters or call businesses asking for permission to hang student-made posters around community.

Step 6-Students will be selected to walk around the community to hang posters in the approved businesses.

Step 7-Once donations begin arriving, students will be organizing items/letters into care packages.

Step 8-Care packages will be sent off to Operation Homefront to be sent to soldiers.
Step 9-Students will arrange a celebration at the end of the year, write letters to local veterans, soldiers, family members, to invite them to come celebrate.

6)How do I plan on measuring the success of the project?

Since we will not actually get to meet the people who will be receiving our items and letters in person, there is no way of knowing for sure what happens to our items and letters once they are sent off.  However, some students may receive a letter back from their soldier.  We can write in a journal to reflect on how this project made us feel and how it may have benefitted others.  Also, some students may continue this on their own which will also show that it was successful.  If able, some students may be able to skype a soldier they have been communicating with.

7)How will we celebrate at the end of our project?

We will have an end of the year party to celebrate the success of the project.  Students can share any letters they have received from the soldiers since the project began.  We can invite local veterans, soldiers, and their family members to share in our celebration and show our appreciation for the service they have done for us as well. 

Video-Gotta Keep Reading!

This video is a song showing students getting excited about reading and explaining all the reasons why reading is fun.  It also lists many of the genres that students can choose from when picking out a book.  I plan on showing this video to my 4th grade students at the beginning of the year.  Hopefully it will get them excited about reading, also. 

Online Resource

 http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html
My online resource will have a permanent change on my teaching in a couple of ways.  One way is how much my lessons will now engage my students by providing fun ways to learn just about any concept.  Another way is by how much time it will save me providing already made Smartboard lessons and activities.  Before this, I would spend so much time searching various websites for different activities or even longer making my own.  Now I can go to one website and everything I need is right in front of me.

Lisa Taylor's Blog

Grandview Elementary
Hi.  My name is Lisa Taylor and I am a 4th grade teacher at Grandview Elementary School in Bellevue, KY.  I am going in to my 9th year teaching there and I love it!  We departmentalize in all of the intermediate grades.  I currently teach Math and Social Studies to my own homeroom and Reading to the entire 4th grade.  Marzano, the author of The Highly Engaged Classroom believes that student engagement happens as a result of a teacher's careful planning and execution of specific strategies.  I completely agree and I work very hard at engaging my students and getting them interested in learning so I look forward to learning more strategies in this class. 

Ways I Effectively Engage Learners
  1.  Smart Board:
In my classroom, I have a Smart Board that I utilize on a daily basis, especially in Math and Reading.  The Smart Board is an interactive tool for the students.  You can use it as a huge touch screen computer and play games on the internet but there are also lots of tools to use and create your own activities.  For example, for a Geometry lesson in Math, the students can manipulate various polygons to practice slides, flips, etc...  An example for teaching fact and opinion in Reading, the students can drag various fact and opinion statements to the appropriate column in a fact and opinion T-chart.  The students really enjoy using this interactive tool.

2.  Document Camera:
I also have a document camera in my classroom that I use often.  It allows me to place something that the students may not be able to see well underneath and a magnified version will be on the projection screen.  I use this often in Math while going over Math problems in their book or workbook.  For example, the following day after a homework assignment, we will go over the answers.  I will put the sheet up on the document camera and work out the problems they had done the previous night.  It makes it a lot easier for the students and me to discuss the problems.

3.  Literature Circles:
In my Reading class, students are reading at various levels, as in all classrooms.  Literature Circles allow students to make a lot of choices and have a job to keep them involved in the book.  They will choose a book that interests them and read with a small group.  While reading, students will have jobs that they will rotate throughout the duration of the book.  Some of the jobs are Summarizers (write a summary of the chapter), Illustrators (draw a picture an event and write a caption for it), Connectors (make a real-life connection to something in the chapter), and Story Mappers (choose a graphic organizer to map out elements in the story).  These are just a few but the students seem to enjoy them very much and it seems to help with the comprehension of the story on top of it.