Room 317 - Community

In Room 317, November/December is such a busy month! I say month, because I feel like there are so many non school days in there. Working with the students to deepening their understanding of community and really digging into why it is so important to our neighborhoods.

In our Arizona social studies standards, strand 4 concept 3 discusses the responsibilities of citizenship. The lesson(s) began with the idea of citizenship and residency without diving too deeply into the student’s personal situations. From there, we discussed what it means to have responsibilities and what should those responsibilities be.

At first, it started out small. The students felt like we should have a responsibility towards our home, school and neighborhood. We are decided that we should be responsible for keeping our areas neat, helping neighbors keep their areas neat if they need help, and being respectful of all areas.

As the months progressed, we began brainstorming ideas for our BIG community gives back project. The students came up with many good ideas but in the end, it was suggested that we create cards/snowflakes to decorate the nearby children’s hospital to brighten their day. One student in particular, Bartel, related our decorations to a GoFundMe.com account. He said, “It’s kinda like we are raising money, but it’s a little more colorful.”

Again, the way community was broken down in the video helped the students connect. As we finished our decorations, students felt that while it was great that we make the sick kiddos in our community feel better, it didn’t help the students in our school. Upon being asked to elaborate, students agreed that we should help the students here at Granada Primary.

With that in mind, I reached out to our self-contained classrooms and our kindergarten classrooms. Started in the month of February, students from Room 317 will be reaching out to special friends who need support and working to make their days brighter. They can’t wait!

Helping out in our community was a great way to help students feel connected even when they are doing something small.

**This is very limited...I know! I apologize but this file could not be pulled out of my old hard drive.