The grade 1s held their Recycle for Good Garage Sale on April 18th & 19th. Their goal was to raise funds to help people in Africa (through World Vision) and to help animals (through the World Wildlife Fund Symbolic Adoption Program). The idea came from Lilly, a student who was watching television one night and saw a commercial that showed some people in Africa need help getting clean water and fresh food. When she shared her idea to help people in Africa the next day at school, everyone in our class was excited to help make it happen! We had lots of supporters to help us too. Community members and families donated many items to sell at the garage sale, parent volunteers helped grade 1 students work each shift of the garage sale and many shoppers came to buy items that they could use. When our final volunteers totaled the profits, the grade 1s had raised $464!!
This week, we visited the World Vision website to see what we could put our donation towards. Since our goal was to provide food and water for people in Africa, we made a list of things that we might want to choose. Then we added items to our “cart” until we were close to the amount we had to donate. We were able to provide 1 pig, 1 sheep, 1 goat, 3 agricultural packs and clean water for 1 family!
Throughout this project, it was very exciting for me to watch as my students identified a real problem that concerned them, then made a plan to make a difference and to see their tremendous success! It never ceases to amaze me what young learners can do when we let them! Way to go Grade 1s, I am such a proud teacher!