12 Days of Service

"On the 1st day of Service my students gave to others..."

You may be silently cursing me because now you're singing the "12 Days of Christmas" in your head but I promise, the 12 Days of Service isn't about an annoyingly catchy song or gimmick--it's all about giving back!

3 years ago, when I was teaching in Illinois, a new concept was brought to my attention. I was told by my team that we were going to ask the kids to each bring in $5 (or more). I immediately thought, oh great, gift exchange, BUT I was happily surprised when my team explained that we were not going to be having a gift exchange (YAY!). Instead, we would be participating in a service project. Hmm....

For the 3 years I was at that school the 4th grade adopted a different family at Christmas time. You may be wondering what "Adopt a Family" means. Basically, we would work with an organization called We Care to provide a family in need with the best Christmas ever! We would buy toys and clothes for the children as well as food for the family's Christmas feast. A gift card was also provided to the family to buy more groceries/necessities throughout the year. Most of the time, students didn't bring the $5 we requested. Instead, they would bring $10, $20, even $50 to donate! Many years we had almost $1,000 to spend on the family. Our students created the list for Walmart and used the internet to estimate the costs (oh yeah, we made sure to meet those pesky state standards!) and then we all loaded on a bus to go shopping! It was magical. It was spiritual. It inspired me.

Now, onto the 12 Days of Service. After my first year of "Adopt a Family" and seeing just how thrilled the students were to help a family in need, I decided to take their service learning to the next level by creating the 12 Days of Service. To prepare for the terrific days to come, a list is made for the 12 days of school leading up to Winter break with small, inexpensive (or free), services that the students can EASILY provide. Each year I edit the list to meet the needs of my classroom, time restrictions, etc. And year after year I am blown away by the enthusiasm from the students to give back to their school and community.

Introducing this year's 12 Days of Service!

My students are pumped to begin this project tomorrow! Mostly because of the fun and fulfilling activities but also because beginning means there are only 12 MORE DAYS UNTIL BREAK! (okay, I may be slightly excited about that last part myself...)

We used our   b r a n d   n e w   classroom Twitter page this morning to tweet about the excitement:

(You wouldn't think you'd get away with reading one of my blog posts and NOT have a little tech involved, would you?)

>>>>>>>>> Follow the students on Twitter & Instagram @worsleylearners <<<<<<<<<

I'm Brian & I'm tweeting about #12DaysofService. I'm excited to read to younger students! #helping #lovelearning #caring #classroomservice

— Worsley Learners (@worsleylearners) December 2, 2015

I'm Joleen & I'm tweeting for my class! #12DaysofService I'm most excited to write a thank you card to the custodians. #servicelearning

— Worsley Learners (@worsleylearners) December 2, 2015

If you're interested in seeing all of the inspirational & heartwarming Tweets and Insta posts from myself and my amazing students during our 12 Days of Service celebration, be sure to follow us @worsleyontheweb & @worsleylearners

BUT there's more!

Do you want to begin this service learning project for your own classroom? Leave a comment below and I will happily share an editable version of our 12 Days with you!

Merry Christmas to all of my fellow teachers! And remember, there are only 12 more days...YOU CAN DO THIS!