Our goal in the ES is to create a PreK-5th Grade program that help students become more aware of global issues from those here in our Lugano Community (Casa Elisabetta, TASIS Garden), to those at a European level (Habitat for Humanity), and a global level (Health Care in Africa - HS Service Learning Group, the Heifer Project, One Hen; Literacy-Blind and Dyslexic Digital libraries).
- The Elementary School has chosen books from the Citizen Kids publishing company this semester to accompany their SLP initiatives.
"Citizen Kids is a collection of books that inform children about the world and inspire them to be better global citizens. The collection aims to make complex global issues accessible for children ages 8 to 12, and covers topics such as water conservation, biodiversity, food security, microlending, citizenship, global awareness and more. Each book provides information and resources to inspire children, both locally and globally."
- The week of April 22nd will be SHOUT Week at the ES which stands for Students Helping Out. Each grade level will prepare an activity that will involve the entire ES community in a service activity that relates to their grade level project.
Pre-K: donated 500 handmade beads to Casa Elisabetta for the children to make bracelets. Pre-K also donated the dull needles and string to make the bracelets. The SHOUT week project was an extension of this project, and the ES made over 300 beads out of paper to add to the ones that the ES had already donated.
The final project to help out Casa Elizabetta was to make coloring books and crayons. Each child in Pre-K chose their favorite zoo animal (an extension of the ES Core Knowledge domain of jungle animals), they told why they liked the animal, and put them together to make a coloring book for each child at the shelter. The crayons were made out of old crayons that were chopped into pieces, remelted in heart moulds to make a crayon of varying colors for each child. This group really enjoyed doing their service learning activities!
Kindergarten: collected one suitcase of medical supplies to date. The drive has been extended to the end of May.
The Kindergarten is reading Mimi's Village
1st Grade: focus on The Heifer Project this semester and specifically buying goats. They collected enough to buy six goats.
The 1st Grade is reading Beatrice's Goat - Here is Beatrice's story. This is an interview with her from 60 minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x_HMGRa0SY
2nd Grade: have initiated a campus clean-up challenge that will be extended to the rest of the academic year.
The 2nd Grade is reading The Good Garden http://www.citizenkidcentral.com/Read/BookDetail.aspx?ID=13
3rd Grade: creating a business (selling bracelets). Grade 3 has earned 1650 CHF from their businesses and made loans to several different people through KIVA. The 3rd Grade is reading One Hen to get them started. Read more Grade 3's KIVA loans.
4th Grade: in collaboration with the Kindergarten recorded 15 digital versions of books for the Blind and Dyslexic library. Visit Ms. Prince's website to view some of them.
5th Grade: Habitat for Humanity night - pizza and movie night earned 1200 CHF.
Contact Julia Wilkins, ES Service Learning Coordinator: julia.wilkins@tasis.ch for more information.
Visit the HS Service Learning section of this site for more information about the groups the ES will be collaborating with this year.
