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Grade 1 |
Sept. – Review school rules (hallway, bathrooms, specialists’
rooms’, etc.); Establish and discuss classroom rules; discuss
friendship (justice – virtue of the month). All done in class.
Oct. – Bookmarks made for town of Franklin library patrons;
cards made for firefighters expressing appreciation. Done in
class and then delivered during “walking field trips.”
Nov. – Cards made for Meals on Wheels recipients. Done in
class.
Dec. – Placemats made for patients at St. Jude’s Hospital.
Done with partners from other first grade class.
Jan. – Birdfeeders are made to help feed birds during winter.
Done in class.
Feb. – Valentine’s Day cards made for Meals on Wheels
recipients. (Last year we also collected supplies for soldier’s
in Iraq.) Done in class.
Mar. – St. Patrick’s Day cards made for Meals on Wheels
recipients. (During 2004/2005 we collected supplies for animals
at the Baypath Animal Shelter in Hopkinton.)
April – Various projects are done around the school and at home
in honor of Earth Day (i.e.: recycling, picking up trash at a
playground, planting saplings provided by the Arbor Society,
etc.) Done in class, within the school, and as homework.
May/June – Students pair up with kindergarten friends, write a
friendly letter to our friend and show them around the
classrooms so that they have a better understanding of first
grade. First grade teachers work with kindergarten teachers and
plan an activity for students to work together in the first
grade classroom so that the kindergarten children spend time in
each first grade room with each teacher.
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(detailed in first column)
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Parents assist students in collections; parents volunteer to
drop off collected items; parents volunteer to chaperone field
trips (i.e.: trip to senior center, trip to fire station, etc.)
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We are answering all three questions together, as we feel they
are related. First of all, there are many, many, MANY
collections, sales, and requests that come in the classroom
throughout the year. Usually students stop by the classrooms
and make announcements. When first graders hear these
announcements they have many questions and they are sure to
forget and/or not be able to explain the project to their
parents. Students should always have a small “write-up”
to accompany any announcements and requests they are
presenting. They should provide all teachers with enough copies
to send one home with each student detailing applicable
organization information, dates, deadlines, supplies/donations
requested, etc. In addition, students should understand what
they are participating in. All too often children come into our
rooms and are unable to read and/or discuss what type of
community service initiative they are engaging in. Students
should be well versed in the project before they go room to
room. Finally, the school needs to coordinate and limit the
amount of collections and sales that occur each month. At the
end of the school year (probably due to Capstone Projects in
their final stages) we are overwhelmed by the amount of
requests we receive. This leads us to believe that perhaps all
projects are not getting the amount of attention and donations
they may be able to if requests were allocated equitably
throughout the year.
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(detailed in column 5) |
Additional Comments: We also vary what projects we participate
in depending on the communities needs. For example, last year
we had a student whose brother was serving in Iraq. First
graders performed various chores around the house to earn
supplies that we could send over to the troops serving there.
Then the brother came in and talked to students and helped us
pack up the boxes of supplies.
Then we try to “reflect” on each project after it is completed
(in first grade we just have discussions, but in higher grades
this can be a valuable writing assignment). This reinforces
what we did and reveals feelings that occurred while we were
helping. Isn’t that a big part of what community service is
about?
J
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Grade 2 |
Meals on Wheels
Monthly Cards
Pennies for Patients (leukemia)
Senior Center Partnership fulfill needs at their request |
Make cards and other items at the request of the Franklin Senior
Center; cell phone and ink cartridge drive |
Parent support when required for specified projects they walk to
Senior Center with us
Hope to collect supplies for Katrina Relief for a work trip I
will be leading in November.
Hope to provide school supplies for school in Tanzania where I
have a contact. |
None
Coordinator of all community service |
None thins have gone smoothly
Do not see many problems but I have only been here 1 year. I
do, however, have ideas.
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Community Service means we are in service to others not at our
convenience but at theirs. It means that we serve them at
their request and make ourselves available to fulfill their
needs
W would like to see, even haead up more school wide efforts,
like Heifer Projects Read to Feed or adopting a school/classroom
to provide supplies for in Africa or elsewhere in the world
where there is great need. I would like to see more global
projects, along with the Franklin community projects. |
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Grade 3 |
Every year, we serve as book buddies to 1st grade
with input from parent reps; we take on a year long project.
One year it was the Franklin Nursing home which we visited 1 x a
month.
Another year we “adopted” my nephew’s Marine Platoon in Iraq.
We raised money by making and selling gift bags. We made cards
and wrote letters. |
Whatever is needed to support our projects. We also meet with 1st
grade 1 x week. |
We depend on parent input, ideas, and support in order to do
special things. |
It would be wonderful to have a school coordinator who could
oversee the projects of the entire school. This person could
meet with all of the parent reps from each class to coordinate
everyone’s efforts. |
As stated, a school wide coordinator could organize all
efforts. At times BFCCS has too many “drives” going on: food,
glasses, ink cartridges. This can appear to be the parents
doing Community Service, and the children. At the same time, it
is very difficult and time consuming to develop a plan each
year. (Worth it, but tough!) |
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Grade 4 |
Monthly cards for “Meals on Wheels” recipients, food drives,
scarf sale.*
*Will be more than happy to talk about this.
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Book buddies
Same |
We have had parent support for our fourth grade scarf project
I t really varies year to year. Last year, we had lots of
helping buying & cutting fleece. Other years it has been
something I’ve had to |
I’m ok presently
It would really help to have: parents buy fleece on sale at
Joann’s or on-line (cheaper); cut fleece into scarves |
Sometimes too many drives at one time.
There are too many “drives”. The kids don’t really engage in
them. Community Service should involve in the physical
activities cleaning up a local park, eg. |
8Will be more than happy to talk about this.
I would really appreciate it if someone on the Community Service
task force could be in charge of publicity. My kids do so much
work each year but they get no we seek it
ourselves |
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Grade 8 |
Capstone Projects (Vary each year)
School helpers (Office w/tasks etc
Various drives (School supplies, gifts at
Holiday
time
Clean up courtyard, playground |
Visited senior center in past
Used to help deliver food to senior community each month |
Homeroom teachers sometimes work together. That is really all
the support there is. |
Help making contact w/outside agencies.
Help identifying needs in school & community. |
Each teacher responsible for our class. Too disjointed an often
teachers don’t have time to plan really meaningful community
service |
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