In our school we encourage our students to participate in Service Learning projects. Although we would like our students to have experience “giving back” we do not like to have experiences that are just about students donating money towards something. Therefore, we have gotten creative and looked at what we could do within our school.
My class a few years ago noticed how overflowing our lost and found table was. That is when something sparked in me – we could help with this problem at our school! From then on, my class has officially taken over the lost and found. About once a month or so we send an e-mail out to everyone in the morning saying that we are going to be putting out the lost and found. We then get all of the items and line them in the hallway. We figure that it is easier for students to look when they are not all piled up. We count how many items are “lost” so that we can do some math equations with the number. It is always our goal to have half the items “found.” We encourage other students throughout the day to look.
We pick the items back up in the afternoon so that the floors can be cleaned after school. We count how many items are left and return the ones that are still lost to the table neatly. The project has turned into a simple way that first graders can learn more about helping out their community!
