Where am I?
Project Ideas
Aging Service-Learning Project Ideas
Learning Opportunities
Compare the prices from 1900 to the current year on items such as bread, milk, postage, gas, cars, houses. Also research what the average income was then compared to now.
Have students make a list of things they can and cannot do at their young age. Then have them examine the same lists for activities they can/cannot do as they grow older. Discuss growing older as a process of development/growth and change.
Introduce and explore the topic of aging - prejudices, fears of aging, myths, stereotypes - by gathering and analyzing cartoons, comic strips, birthday cards, and common sayings.
Invite older adults into the classroom to discuss their experiences during momentous historical periods of change such as war, immigration, recession, and the civil rights movement.
Have students compare the roles of older adults in various cultures in the U.S. with those in other countries. This would be another opportunity to bring varied older adults into the classroom.
Have students research how various acts of Congress have affected the lives of older Americans. Examples: Social Security Act, Older Americans Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Invite older adults into the classroom to read and discuss books that are about growing old.
Develop a timeline showing the ages of the students, their siblings, parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.
Take students to an old cemetery to gather data to construct a graph of birth and death rates. Note the changes over time and the implication of the data.
Make comparisons of money invested at various ages during the lifespan.
Research what older people are called in different cultures. Have students ask family members if they use any of these names.
Invite healthy retired athletes to discuss any limitations their age or health changes have placed on their abilities.
Project Ideas
Organize a pen pal program between children and older community residents. Reflection and celebration can happen when the older adults come to class to meet their pen pals or the students go to visit them.
Take the class to a nursing facility to visit a class that will demonstrate fitness activities for the elderly. Let the children attend the class with the residents.
Invite older adults to participate in a computer training course taught by students.
Students visit or call a senior they know and ask the senior to relate a special story from the past. Students write down the stories and share them together in class, discussing the difference in perspective, advances in technology, and major events witnessed.
Students seek out a senior and get to know him or her through an interview or letter writing program. Students then assemble a gift basket or bag for their senior.
Students visit a senior center to meet with seniors, play board games or cards, or read to them.
Students make thank-you cards for veterans or create drawings for seniors. Laminate the cards or drawings to make placemats. The placemats can be delivered to the local veteran's home or to a rest home by the students.
An entire class adopts one senior for the entire year. They can write letters, draw pictures,recognize their birthday, conduct interviews, invite him/her to lunch, etc.
Students visit seniors and interview them about their life stories. Students then create a narrative or artwork depicting the life stories which they share with the seniors. The results can also be shown at city hall, a mall, a library, or another public place.
Students write a play integrating the seniors' life stories with the community history and perform it for the seniors and the surrounding community.
Arrange a game day at a senior center. Students can either bring their favorite game or make games to play with the residents.
Interview seniors about their favorite foods or recipes. As a class, choose a few of the foods to find the recipe for and make the food. Deliver it to the senior center.
Host a Grandparents Day at your school. (Contact the service-learning office for a sample schedule and ideas.)
Interview a senior. Ask them, "Did you ever..." see a lion, go swimming, go on a boat, take a cruise, go to a beach, visit an art gallery, stay on a farm, sleep in a cabin or tent, go to a country fair, go berry or vegetable picking, see a circus, act in a play, see a really scary movie, get a bad grade, win a prize, have a good luck charm, make something you were really proud of, move to a new house, travel overseas, live in a foreign country, stay in a fancy hotel, drive in a convertible, have a pet, bake bread, play an instrument, etc.
Establish a relationship with a nursing home. Have students become "birthday buddies," sending a card to their buddy on his/her birthday and other important dates.
Senior-Senior Prom
Subjects: Social Studies/History, Language Arts/Communications, Music/Arts, Health/Physical Ed.
Grades: 9-12
Topics: Intergenerational, Health and Safety, Diversity/Multiculturalism
State: Massachusetts
Members of the senior class decided to celebrate the end of their senior year by hosting a Senior-Senior Prom. Students and the senior citizens teamed up and planned the event together. They chose a theme, researched music and dances, canvassed stores and community members for donations of prizes, purchased ingredients aligned with dietary restrictions, and collaborated with the Culinary Arts Department to make refreshments. They also arrange for transportation and researched the building's handicapped accessibility, making necessary adjustments. In the final stages of the project they hired a band, sent invitations, and decorated the high school gymnasium.
The event was the culmination of the class' yearlong personal study of the aging and elderly in today's world and a celebration of the new friendships cultivated through weekly visits. A band played music from the senior citizens' era, and a queen and her senior court were chosen and crowned during the evening's festivities. Teens and elders laughed and shared stories. As they examined the myths and realities about the elderly, students learned to care for others, be compassionate, and appreciate elders as friends.
Adapted from "Community Lessons: Integrating Service-Learning Into K-12 Curriculum," 2001, Massachusetts Department of Education, Massachusetts Service Alliance, and Learn and Serve America. Used with permission of Massachusetts Department of Education, www.doe.mass.edu/csl, (781) 338-3000.