On May 21st, Cracker Trail Elementary School hosted its first, "Leader in Me," Leadership Day to celebrate student leaders. My class was an active participant in the celebration. During the period of an hour, four different groups of visiting local business owners, community service group members and parents, circulated through our classroom and our outdoor bird watch area. My students proudly seized the opportunity to present their Florida Black Bear Community Service Learning Project inside the classroom and shared our class bird watch live webcam in our bird garden just outside our classroom.
Each of my 18 students played an intricate part in Leadership Day. Two students were stationed outside under a tent in the classroom bird garden and sanctuary, the other sixteen children were inside. One student was the greeter and welcomed visitors as they came in.
Inspired by Jane Goodall
The first two students explained how our class got started working on a project. I had attended a Jane Goodall Roots and Shoots training at UCF in Orlando, Florida. When I came back I couldn't wait to get started working on a project with my class. The class mapped our community, researched community problems and voted for a community issue of concern to them.
Bears in the News and Brainstorming "Beary" Good Ideas
One of my students was absent, so this next student filled in for her and told the visitors about the class collecting bear news. Then she did her part and shared the "Beary" Good Ideas brainstorming chart, where students posted their campaign ideas.
Bear Projects
The next two children talked about projects the class worked on for the campaign. The students had written persuasive letters to Publix asking for a donation to buy ingredients for decorating cupcakes. Part of the class campaign plan was to have a bear booth at the school annual PTO Hoedown where visitors could decorate a cupcake to look like a bear cub.
Students also made campaign t-shirts that said, "Don't Feed Bears."
Learning about Bears
These three boys told visitors about how our class learned about bears. Bear biologist Wade Ulrey visited our class and brought bear props to teach the students all about Florida Black Bears. Our class also went on a field trip to the Hardee County Wildlife Refuge where the children had an opportunity to see two bears in captivity. Once the students learned about bears they made bear information brochures, included toward the end of this post.
PTO Annual Hoedown Event
This student shared about the success of the bear project booth at our school PTO annual Hoedown. She invited classroom visitors to add a bear sighting location to our community map, if they had seen any. This classroom visitor had seen a bear before. He added a bear sticker to our map and said he would send us a bear picture.
Fan Mail
During the course of the bear project the class received several fan mail packages. These boys presented some of the materials the class received. The Be Bear Aware campaign group from Missoula, Montana sent the class over $500.00 worth of bear materials; a community member sent the class bear stickers and note cards; and the CEO of Oceana from Washington, D.C. sent the class a book about oceans and asked the students to consider doing an ocean conservation project in the future.
Trashcan Tattoos
The class applied for and received a $200.00 grant from The Morgridge Family Foundation to use toward the bear campaign. The students used the grant funds to create trashcan decals with the message "Be Bear Aware" and "Put trash out on pick-up days".
Community Mapping Video Collaboration Project with Roots and Shoots and Google
Through the bear project our class had an opportunity to collaborate with Roots and Shoots and Google on a community mapping video and written tutorial to teach others how to make community maps. To view, click on this link
Bear Information Brochures
(for a better view click on each picture below)
Live Webcam in the Bird Garden
Here the girls were practicing manipulating the bird cam, before Leadership Day.
The girls demonstrated how the live webcam works for visitors.
Then they passed out bird brochures and homemade sunflower seed packets.
