Students Making a Difference through ‘Class Action’
Service learning projects are a great way to address curricular outcomes while providing students the opportunity to leave a positive and lasting impact on the community. The Alberta SPCA’s ‘Class Action’ projects to help animals, people or the environment provide an opportunity to engage your students in service learning. One of the great things about a ‘Class Action’ project is that students decide on a problem or issue that impacts the community, and they work together as a class to address it. Students are able to take ownership and pride in their learning, knowing that they are helping their community.
So far this school year, students from across Alberta have completed a variety of service learning projects that have positively impacted their communities in a number of creative ways. Here are a few examples of how students have made a difference in their communities:
- Construction technology students at St. John XXIII Elementary/Junior High Catholic School built well-insulated houses for families in need across Alberta. So far, six dog houses have been built through this project with more planned for the future, including other schools in the Edmonton Catholic School Division! More information on the Dog House Project can be found here.
- Mrs. Bilyk’s Grade One Class at Holy Family School chose to support the ‘Adopt-A-Senior’ campaign. Students held a bake sale at their school to raise money towards buying gifts for seniors in their community. In the end, the students raised enough money to purchase items to ensure three seniors had gifts to open on Christmas.
- Miss McCracken’s Grade Four Class at Canyon Elementary School raised funds for their local hospital, in addition to raising money for clean water for families in Kenya.
- Students at the Beaumont Out of School Care brought one food item each day of the Kindness Challenge to donate to their local food bank. Over the sixteen-day period, the students collected enough items to fill an entire wagon full of food to donate to those in need.
- Miss Faganello’s Grade Five Class at Two Hills Mennonite School had a discussion around the importance of having proper protection for outside pets. Students decided to make an awareness campaign for their community, informing their neighbours on responsible pet ownership including information on appropriate outdoor shelters. It turns out that the community was very receptive to the students’ message and several people made changes.
These are just a few examples of the fantastic work students are doing in our province. Share these examples with your students to let them know what other classes are doing. Who knows, it might spark an idea in your students to do a ‘Class Action’ project of your own. If you need help getting started with your project, check out our step-by-step-guide for a successful project!
Be sure to let us know if your class completes a project. We like to recognize students for their work in making a positive impact on their community. Each class is added to the Kindness Map and awarded a ‘Kind Class” certificate.
