At a young age, students learn the importance of giving back and how to be impactful within our local and greater community at large through service projects. Teachers weave community service projects into the daily curriculum, such as the recent Harry Potter Bakesale conducted in Mrs. McCormick's second-grade class.
Each quarter, the second-grade service club considers ways to serve the community while also taking the opportunity to highlight and develop each student's skill set. First, the class brainstorms ideas, then they cast votes for which service project idea they would like to take on. Students learn about the importance of voting, the process, and also how to respect the opinions of their classmates.
This experiential way of learning lends to several cross-curricular elements by bridging to math as the class tallying results and creating a chart and graph to determine what service project won the election. The project also connects students to language arts as they must consider the who, what, when, where, and how. So far this year, the local animal shelter and Blue Ridge Hospice are benefitting from the second-grade class's generosity.
The Harry Potter bakesale resulted in a huge success with students filling in the roles to pull it off based on their interests and expertise. Students designed flyers, promoted the event throughout the school, solicited help from parents to bake special treats, held the sale during lunch, and counted their earnings down to the penny earning a total of $620 to donate to Blue Ridge Hospice in Front Royal, Virginia. The organization was so excited they send a special note to the students, great job second-grade!
"It is wonderful to see that there are educators promoting kindness, generosity, care & concern for others. We are so grateful to you and your class and you are all helping people, and their families, at the worst time of their lives. Again, our sincerest thanks and appreciation, from the entire staff of Blue Ridge Hospice."
Service continues throughout all grade levels and into the Upper school where students may join the Leos Club, a subset of the Rappahannock Country Lion's Club. The WCDS Leos Club recently launched an Instagram account where the community can follow along with WCDS student community service projects. Follow them @wcdsleosclub!
