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.
The kindergarten students at my practicum made tissue paper flowers for the residents at the Cheney Care Center. We made the flowers on Valentine’s Day and talked about how we can show love to others by being kind. Because the kindergarteners need a lot of support to write, we did not make cards for the residents.
After the students made the flowers, I brought them to the Cheney Care Center and took pictures of the flowers with the residents. They hung the flowers up in the common space, so the residents could see them during meal times. The students at my practicum were so excited to see the pictures, and one student asked about them every day until I got the pictures. It was really cool to see how incredibly empathetic my students were toward other people.