Recently, our first grade teachers read The Girl in the Yellow Dress to their students to go along with their devotion theme of kindness. This book is about a child who fills her dress pockets with food in order to feed her family. Students were quite bothered by this story and the concept of hungry children. After talking with their teachers, they were eager to take action and help hungry kids right in our own community. Teachers invited a representative from Hand2Hand to share about their ministry of feeding hungry kids in Byron Center. The first graders were inspired to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
To deepen learning, our first grade teachers paired this opportunity with curricular standards. They reframed their informational writing lessons and had their students compose a letter to their parents explaining the ministry, sharing their desire to help, and requesting specific food items. These writing lessons hit the learning target of clearly communicating using writing. Families read the letter and were excited to respond with mac and cheese, cracker packs, meat sticks, and Ziploc bags. After the items were collected, students further practiced writing skills by adding jokes to be placed in the goodie bags. (Our first graders love to tell silly jokes!) Next, the first graders visited Hand2Hand, learned more details about the ministry, determined what food needed to go in each bag, and packed the items themselves.
The teachers later commented, “We found purpose in writing, rather than just learning isolated skills. This experience will also be helpful to reflect on when we study needs and wants in social studies soon.” Thinking about the children who would receive the food packs, the students reflected, “They will feel God in their hearts!” “They’ll think people care about them.” “The kids are going to smile.”
The long-term goal was to empower young learners to make a difference in God’s world. Students were community builders by meeting the needs of hungry children and by using their words to encourage those around them. To connect learning to that goal, they used their new writing skills to make it happen!
