Christmas seemed the perfect time to show appreciation to some senior citizens at a local assisted care home.  This group searched online for some quick, fun crafts to make as gifts.  Their top choices were pipecleaner and bead ornaments and ice cream cone Christmas trees.  They invited other fifth grade classrooms to join us.  One wrote personalized Christmas cards, and another class made and bagged a special trail mix.  What an exciting visit students had with gifts and iPads in hand.

After brainstorming, this group decided to ask fifth graders to bring in needed clothing items for our school nurse and to bring in nonperishable items for a local food pantry.  They made a catchy poster encouraging peers to bring in specific items.  After sharing a quick skit and their poster with each fifth grade class, they spent mornings collecting and organizing collections.  Great turnout!

This group used google earth to make a screen shot of our school grounds.  After dividing the map into five sections, they invited the other fifth grades to join us in trash pickup.  A list was made of necessary equipment and emailed to our Building and Grounds Department. After making a short skit and assembling supplies, the team visited each participating class to give a pep talk!

This group choose to help fight bullying in our school.  They searched the web for poster ideas and then created posters for our hallways.  They also filmed a short iMovie to share with peers to encourage them to take an active stand against bullying.

The second unit in our Pearson literature book was themed "Doing the Right Thing."  As students read about people who had made significant choices, they wrote essays on what "Doing the Right Thing" meant to them. What would it look like at home, in our classroom, in Bremen, in the US, in our world?  Based on these responses, students formed  teams of peers with similar interests:  fighting bullying, helping senior citizens, cleaning up the environment, and helping those in need.