Where am I?
Past Projects
A Different Canned Food Drive
Keysor Elementary has always been known for bringing in a huge amount of cans for their annual canned food drive. However, this year, in addition to the canned food drive, the students experienced a different sort of drive. Working with Operation Food Search, students learned about hunger and poverty in the St. Louis area. They then brought in each food group for Operation Backpack and created 215 backpacks. The backpacks are filled with nutritious, kid-friendly, easy-to-prepare foods and given to children on Friday before school dismissal. On Monday, students return the empty backpacks and the cycle continues.
Keysor students had an all-school assembly to present the backpacks. Teacher, Jared Noble, debriefed with his students after the assembly. The class got into a circle and had a seminar/meeting on their thoughts and feelings about Operation Backpack. (They did this the previous night in their Writer's Notebooks as an assignment and then some shared their entries.)
Here is what some of the students said:
"I felt really good about it this year. It wasn't about throwing pies and competition. It was about coming together as a community and helping others."
"I felt happy and good to help others. Before, it was always about competition, pies and the feathers. Now it is about helping those in need. We also saved time without having to deal with the feathers, an assembly and the competition. It was nice."
"I really liked the feeling I got with helping others who are less fortunate than us. Many of the families at Keysor helped in stopping hunger for people. It probably means a lot to the kids that get the food because they don't get much food at home. I feel very good for donating, because now I know how lucky I am. I feel that our school was a BIG success for doing this!"
"I thought we did really well with working together and bringing things in for people who need it. It wasn't just our class doing it, it was the whole school doing the same thing which was nice."
"I thought this was the best food drive yet. There wasn't any competition, arguing or comparing between classes. We ALL worked together to help one another and donate things that others don't have. It really felt like we had a goal and reached it. I think we can set an even higher goal next year and reach that one too."
Keysor Third Grade Citizenship Tree
Students in Keisha Parker’s third grade class at Keysor were learning about civics in social studies. She decided to create a Classroom Citizenship Tree designed to help students recognize that they can make positive contributions to their community by helping others. The idea was to provide students with the opportunity to apply what they learned about citizenship outside of the classroom. Each student was asked to choose a specific deed he or she could accomplish to practice good citizenship and agree to complete the deed by the first week of December. Each student then wrote his or her deed on an apple and placed it on the Classroom Citizenship Tree. The tree symbolized the positive impact, both personal and civic, of practicing good citizenship. Students were able to discuss the project throughout the day, as well as use knowledge learned from all curricular areas to help them with their projects.
3rd Grade Voter Registration Fair
Third grade students from Robinson, Keysor, and Westchester sponsored a voter registration fair on September 29th to help register people prior to last November’s election. The third grade social studies curriculum includes a unit on government, with a focus on the voting process and the importance of voting. As an extension of this unit, students then publicized the Voter Registration Fair within their school, to school families, and within the community. Students created signs/posters, which included information about the event, what is needed to register, and why it is so important to vote. The actual voter registration took place at the Kirkwood Public Library and was staffed by library employees, as well as help from the League of Women Voter volunteers. (Kim Driscoll, teacher at Robinson, coordinated the service learning project for all schools involved.)
Keysor Ambassadors Make a Difference
Fifth grade Keysor Ambassadors held their 5th annual gift giving project. Students work with Youth In Need and asked the Keysor families to buy a $5 - $10 gift for a boy or girl of a certain age and bring it in. The Ambassadors wrapped the gifts and Youth in Need distributed them to Kids with Cancer and homeless shelters. This year, because of education and encouragement from the ECO Club, the Ambassadors used all recyclable materials.
UNITE Update
Keysor Elementary students meet every month in their UNITE groups. These are cross-grade level groups that focus on a different UNITE theme each month, completing activities and participating in discussions.