Project Ideas

Paper Flowers and Friendly Letters

June 13, 2022 Leave a Comment

Student Contributor -H. Marsh
I had my students at my practicum create paper flowers and friendly letters for the residents at the Cheney Care Center. The friendly letters are letters that have a greeting, closing, and a body that contains any information the teacher would like. The paper flowers are made from paper and pipe cleaners and are simple to make. The paper flowers and friendly letters would then be delivered to the organization and the organization would then schedule a zoom call or give photos to the school so the students can see what they have done.

To begin, I had the second-grade class create friendly letters and paper flowers. Friendly letters have a greeting, a body, and a closing. Within the body, the students told the residents their age, what they like to do, and something friendly at the end. The paper flowers were made from various colors of construction paper, yellow and green pipe cleaners, tape, and a container to hold the flowers. This was a service to the community because the students’ created gifts for others. The paper flowers and friendly letters made the residents at the Cheney Care Center happy. This was powerful for the kids because they could not wait to give the friendly letters and the paper flowers to the residents. One of the kids told me how happy this made them to give back to others. I would recommend having your students create paper flowers and friendly letters for others.

Doing the project with the students went well. The flowers and friendly letters the students made were super cute. The students also really enjoyed creating the gifts for the residents. I had the students create the paper flowers and friendly letters for the residents at the same time. I had to modify the zoom meeting and pictures from the Cheney Care Center. Unfortunately, there was not a time that worked to do the zoom call or pictures with the Cheney Care Center. Therefore, this part of the project did not work. The advice that I would give is that it is okay if everything does not turn out the way you planned it to. If the kids do not get to have the Zoom Call or pictures with the organization, the students will still be impacted by the project because they are still learning to give back to others.

Donating to Animals in Need

March 23, 2022 Leave a Comment

Student Contributor -S. Benson
I’ve been working at Spokane Humane Society for over a year and was very excited to partner with them with this project. I wanted to show my placement students the benefits of donating to animals in need. I explained to them all the important aspects Spokane Humane Society offers to their adoptable animals. Students were very engaged, since who doesn’t love animals.

I started by telling students about how much I love working with and caring for the animals at Spokane Humane Society. I then provided students with the printout of Spokane Humane Society’s wish list and informed them that these donations can be new or used. Also, food, toys, blankets, and treats are not the only donation options. Included on the wish list is office supplies and cleaning supplies, these items help workers and volunteers provide exceptional service for the animals. For this project I decorated a donation box and included pictures of adoptable animals on the front. As well as a picture of Kane, a dog who was at the shelter for over a year before he found his forever home. By being able to donate new or used items to animals in need, students are given the opportunity to give back to their community and learn responsibility. Students were so excited to be able and provide things for shelter animals that one girl convinced her mom to sign them up for volunteering. Another young boy recently lost their family dog and brought in his old dog bed to donate. He mentioned that his family will be looking at Spokane Humane Society dogs to adopt when the time is right.

This project went great with my placement students, and they brought in amazing donation items for the shelter animals. Talking about some animals at the shelter who have medical issues and have been there for a while really pulled on the heart strings of some children. I informed them that adopting out animals with lifelong medical needs can be difficult. Also, I made sure students understand that donations can be new or used. Telling students this aspect is important and would be my advice for anyone trying to do the same project, because not everyone has access to buy new donation items.

Recycled T-Shirt Dog Toys

March 22, 2022 Leave a Comment

Student Contributor -J. MacPherson
In this project, I worked with my students to partner with S.C.R.A.P.S., a local animal shelter. I had my students bring in recycled t-shirts that we cut and braided to make into dog toys. These dog toys were then donated to the shelter for the dog’s awaiting homes.

Each of my students brought in a recycled t-shirt. We used these recycled t-shirts to cut them across the chest area and create tears along the hem that we could then tear into strips of fabric. Using the torn strips of fabric, the students tied and braided the strips into a rope toy for dogs. The toys were then donated to the shelter. This activity was beneficial to the community because students were able to repurpose materials and donate them to the animals in need at a local shelter. The students who participated in this project were very excited to give back to the animal community, as most of them have pets of their own. Many of the students were also excited to learn how to make dog toys out of recycled materials, expressing their enthusiasm to try this at home! I had many students approach me, asking about areas they can volunteer in the community. This told me that the project had an impact on students wanting to give back to the community.

When planning, I would consider only using cotton t-shirts for this project. I found that any other material, including soft material, was more difficult to tear into even strips. Another suggestion I would make is to have students cut the strips all the way down, rather than tear. This will possible safety concerns in the classroom. Overall, this is a great project that requires little materials and is easy to teach little ones!

Letters to Soldiers

March 18, 2022 Leave a Comment

Student Contributor -M. Russell
This organization, Soldier’s Angels, is something that allows everyone to support our soldiers in so many different ways. There are multiple different teams included in this organization include card and letter writing team, angel bakers team, chaplain support team, deployed adoptions team, ladies of liberty team, and special operations forces team. All of these aspects of the organization provide some kind of support and help for soldiers that might not get it from other sources. It shows the soldiers that they are loved and appreciated by a lot of people around them. For this project, I chose to register for the card writing team and send some letters from my kindergarteners to the soldiers.

After researching this organization and getting in contact with someone from the team, I finally got the chance to work with my students on what their job was. I started with a discussion of what a soldier is and all of the things that they do for our country, including how they protect us. I showed the students my example letter and helped them write out the message we decided to send which was “I am thankful for your service.” They then drew whatever picture they wanted to in the space above the words. They used lots of colors and got really creative with what they wanted to soldiers to receive. It was super cool to see the way the kids were so interested in this project and how happy they were that I was actually sending the letters. This idea is a quick and easy service for the community that can be done by anyone and everyone in the school. It is a way to show kindness to the people who protect us and it helps us give back in a way that can be forgotten sometimes. A simple letter can be so powerful for someone to receive, especially in hard times and from a young student they do not even know.

I thought the project went really well. The kids were super engaged in writing the letters and genuinely enjoyed the process, which was really cool to see. A lot of them took their time on their drawings and really wanted it to be something the soldiers were going to like. Most of the parts of my plan worked well, and I was happy to be able to do it with the whole group of students. There were a couple kids that I had to modify things for a little bit because they struggle with their writing, so they had to trace the letters that we wrote for them. It was good though because we still got to see their handwriting over ours. Another aspect of it that I would have liked to be more prepared for was introducing the topic and explaining the “why” of it all to the kids a little better. I would tell anyone that was trying to do this same project to allow your students to write whatever they want for the letter if you are in an upper grade level. Since I did this with a kindergarten class, it was a little bit harder to do this.

Spokanimal Supplies Drive

March 17, 2022 Leave a Comment

Student Contributor -katelyn pitzer
In this project, I had my students gather supplies for the Spokanimal animal shelter. The students gathered supplies over the month of February. Then I went and delivered the supplies to spokanimal.

For the project, the students were given a newsletter in their mailboxes that went home to parents about how we can help our community. It explained we would be doing a supplies drive to help the animals at spokanimal. The students brought in supplies over the month of February and would get the privilege of bringing supplies down to the office where the supplies were stored when the class would get team points for being respectful and on task. This was a service to the community because it greatly helped sponanimal stay in business so that all the animals can go to a good home! It was powerful for the students because we know how much they love animals and they were so excited and happy to be able to make a difference in their community and help out the animals in need!

The project went really well! The students gathering supplies over the whole month of February worked great because it gave lots of time for students to get the information to parents/guardians and get the supplies back to the school. If I had more time I would try and plan a field trip to spokanimal for the students to visibly see the worker’s gratitude when delivering the supplies.

Letters to Soldiers

March 14, 2022 Leave a Comment

Student Contributor -G. Allen
For my project, Letters to Soldiers, I had a group of 7th grade students create letters thanking the soldiers for their hard work and dedication. After viewing the partner organization website, Support Our Troops, I noticed that there were many items that soldiers requested. On my own, I went to the store and gathered a few items that were mentioned by the soldiers. After gathering the letters that the students wrote, a picture of all the students, and the various snacks, I sent the package off.

I first explained the project to the students and why I chose this project. I told the students that this is a great way to give back to those who give so much to us. When discussing with them that we would be writing letters to our soldiers and thanking them for their service, I emphasized the fact that these letters were going to go to real soldiers. All the students became very excited when hearing this information. For the formation of the letters, I printed off a letter template with soldiers on the bottom. Students had the option to color the soldiers, but due to time limitation, many students did not have time to do so. I gave the students freedom in their writing, as long as it was appropriate. Once each student was finished with their writing, I collected the letters. I captured a picture of the students to send along with their letters. Following the project, various students came up to me and said that they truly enjoyed doing the activity and they are excited for the soldiers to read their letter. To add onto the letters and the photo, I also wanted to provide a variety of snacks to include in the care package. While I could have included the students in on this part, I decided that it was easier to collect these snacks by myself. The Support Our Troops website provides a list of items that soldiers would love to receive. I took this list into consideration when I was doing my shopping. Once I was finished with everything, I put the letters from my students, the photo, and the snacks all in one big box and shipped it to the address that was provided on the Support Our Troops website. We included an email and phone number in hopes of them contacting us when they receive our care package!

The execution of my project went great. I thought deeply about the planning and different strategies to use, so the activity with the students went very smoothly. I think that providing students with a letter template was very helpful in the case of having the letters look presentable. My plan was to have the students color the soldiers on the bottom of the letter, but unfortunately, we ran out of time. A piece of advice that I would give to anyone trying to do this same project would be to allow your students more time in creating these letters. I set aside 35 minutes for the students to create their letter and color the picture. In the future, I would have allowed 45 minutes for the completion of their letters. Another piece of advice would be to read the letters before sending them off to the soldiers. There may be a student who tries sneaking something into their letter that may not be completely appropriate.