Local students prepare for Thanksgiving
Courtesy of West Greene Elementary Center
Second-grade students at West Greene Elementary Center in West Greene School District are celebrating Thanksgiving and the Christmas season with an act of kindness. The students are working to raise money to send two Guatemalan second-graders to school for a year.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Kindergarten students at West Greene Elementary Center, including Walker Hall, Reese Six, Jada Viviano, Colt Clark, Hunter Hall, Garrett Barnes, Bentlee McMillan, Rylee Yeager and Savanna Horner, camouflaged turkeys as a Thanksgiving activity.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
A second-grader at West Greene Elementary Center, shows a camouflaged turkey she made as students get ready for Thanksgiving.
Courtesy of Washington Park Elementary School
Washington Park Elementary School students prepare for their Thanksgiving celebration, where they sing songs and enjoy a “feast.”
West Greene Elementary Center second-graders are celebrating Thanksgiving and the Christmas season by undertaking an act-of-kindness project that will benefit two second-grade students who attend school nearly 3,000 miles away.
The three second-grade classes are raising funds during the holiday season to send two Guatemalan children to school for a year.
“We try to make Thanksgiving a time of giving,” said second-grade teacher Marla Patton. “We want our kids to understand that there is much to be grateful for every day, and that we need to appreciate the things we take for granted.”
The second-graders, led by reading teacher Leeann Danley, who has been on several mission trips to Guatemala, studied the differences between their school and schools in the impoverished Central American country.
The second-graders were surprised to learn their Guatemalan counterparts don’t have running water and have to heat water in buckets to bathe; can’t check out library books, and are required to pay for transportation to and from school.
And, many Guatemalan children don’t attend school; instead, they help their parents with chores, including carrying water, or they work.
The West Greene students wrote letters that will be sent to local businesses and members of the school community outlining what their school experience is like compared with students in Guatemala, and the things in their lives for which they are grateful.
An example, from Alexis Tonsel:
“I would like to tell you a little about how thankful I am for my country and school. I have a lot of clothes for school and I have play clothes when I get home from school. I clean my clothes with Tide. We also have lots of food. I get my food from Walmart and McDonald’s. At school, we have a cafeteria. It’s a place you can get lots of food instead of having bananas. My school is really awesome, cool, big, neat and new.”
The cost to send the Guatemalan students to school is $250.
Patton said the students will have a video call with the Guatemalan second-graders, John and Flori, from the village of Patzun, after they raise the money.
“It’s fun to be involved in teaching kids to be compassionate and thoughtful, and thankful for what they have,” said Patton. “Our kids will benefit from being kind people and giving, and seeing what good comes from it.”
The students have started a gofundme campaign to help with their scholarship drive.
Other classes at West Greene Elementary Center demonstrated their creative talents through art projects. Kindergarteners camouflaged turkeys so they would stay safe during Thanksgiving.
In art class, second-grade students sculpted turkeys using Model Magic, and then painted the birds and added feathers.
At Washington Park Elementary School in Washington School District, kindergarten students in seven classes, wearing colorful headbands, practiced singing songs they performed at their annual Thanksgiving celebration. They ate a “feast” of popcorn and apple juice and talked about what they were thankful for.