What If You Could Change the World?
You can support service learning in your kindergarten through eighth grade classroom and see learning objectives come to life.
By Alison Panik
The next time you are in the faculty lunchroom, ask one of your colleagues about a time when a life experience changed them for the better. What experiences in your own life have taught you your greatest lessons? Recently, I led a weeklong, summer evening program. We had set a goal for the children to raise enough money to purchase one brand new tent home for an earthquake-affected family in Haiti. Each tent package costs $100. We thought this was a very ambitious goal. Little did we know the impact that knowledge of the situation in Haiti could make on 50 children. We shared information about the earthquake and the current living conditions there. Children learned about relief efforts and the needs of the homeless community. We created a poster board tent with 100 spaces and kept track of each dollar we raised or had donated by placing a sticker on each spot until the tent was covered (and purchased).
After we bought the first tent, the children decided they wanted to donate enough money to purchase another. Children went home and did extra chores to earn some of the funds. We had a "cling clang day," when all of the children gathered as many coins as they could find to donate. Stacking and counting coins was just another part of the learning adventure! The result? Twelve tents were purchased in total by 50 children. The greatest learning experience? Children realized that they have the power to make a difference in the world.
Service Learning projects not only contribute to the welfare of the local or global community, but they also offer great opportunities for learning. Inviting families and community members to join your class or group mobilizes volunteers who might not otherwise have the opportunity to put their values into practice. Sharing the successful stories of Service Learning can be a terrific publicity boost for your school or organization. The lesson plans below provide a variety of ideas for finding Service Learning opportunities to meet your community’s unique needs.
Service Learning Lesson Plans:
Philanthropy meets writing in this excellent lesson that empowers upper elementary and middle school students to obtain funding for a project of their choice. Key for the success of this lesson is access to the Internet to search for foundations that might support the service organizations the students are interested in starting. Students work in groups to write grants; however, teachers might ask individual students to write sample grants for assessment purposes. I would do this lesson at the start of the school year to be able to find grants that will provide funding during the school year.
The third in a series of lessons in a unit on endangered species, this lesson could also stand alone if you begin with the presentation of the key vocabulary: philanthropist and environmental stewardship. Over three 45-minute sessions, students in third through fifth grade identify an animal in danger of becoming extinct, then develop a fund-raising project to take action to help the animal. While an example of a service learning experience is provided, the lesson suggests that each classroom’s project should be student-designed and teacher-supervised. I like the Home/School Connection Letter that is included with this lesson.
While not all students live along a coast, everyone lives within some kind of watershed. In this lesson, middle school students draw a map of their local watershed and identify native species that live within that mapped region. Be sure to plan ahead for this lesson; teachers will need to obtain several crucial items, such as a topographic map of the community and field guides for local native plants and wildlife. These materials might be borrowed from local conservation organizations.
This community service lesson for all grades integrates language arts with social studies as students learn about soldiers who serve our country in times of peace and times of war. Schedule this lesson any time of the year or consider how it might fit nicely into a Veteran’s Day or Memorial Day event or as a writing activity connected with the study of a major war. Before writing, I would invite soldiers from students’ families to visit the classroom to answer questions about the service they provided to our country. Ideas for writing projects and recognition events are included in this lesson. I especially like the link to the Letters From Home Project, which offers tips on writing to soldiers in active duty.
Graphing the Annual Food Drive
Students in all grades analyze real data gathered in a school-wide food drive, monitoring daily or weekly results and graphing different kinds of food contributions (canned foods vs. packaged goods). The best part of this activity is the resulting graph, posted in a hallway or entrance for all to see even after the items have been donated. This lesson provides ideas for extending learning, including creating grade-appropriate math word problems using the graphed data. Samples of questions for each grade level are included.