Jan 27

Written by: ngreditor
1/27/2009 5:48 PM 

Third graders raise funds for St. Jude

The 3rd grade class rolling the remainder of nearly 7,000 pennies near the end of the school day.

Deb Matson’s third grade class is currently involved in a fund raising project for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. The project evolved out of a magazine story she read about how two pennies made the difference for a group of students raising funds.

Mrs. Matson realized she could combine three of the subjects her class had been studying. They had just completed a history unit celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the difference he made for others. The theme of their reading unit was “Money,” which also included stories of people who shared what they had for the benefit of others. In math the class had started on multiplication.

As a class they decided to see if they could come up with a donation of $10.00 (all in pennies) to send to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

Well, the kids just amazed her! On January 16th the class began with a total of $1.73. Today they have $69.40! The goal is now to send $75 to St. Jude. The total amount is all in pennies, so they are using recess times to count and roll the pennies.

Once the pennies are rolled, the class will take them to the bank and trade them in for bills or a money order to send as their donation.

The demands of the curriculum make it difficult to do special projects, but Mrs. Matson project has been able to incorporate this project into lessons without taking time away from instruction. “Random Acts of Kindness Week” is celebrated in February, so this will be one way of celebrating that as well. Mrs. Matson is very proud of the kids’ efforts and the community should be too.

Copyright ©2009 Newman Grove Reporter