Student Contributor -C. Budge
My 2nd grade students donated t-shirts that they no longer used at home, and together as a class we made dog toys to donate to the Spokane Humane Society. The students got to choose if they wanted to use short strips of t-shirts or long ones, to either make a toy for a big dog or a small one. Each student made two dog toys, because we had so many t-shirt donations, so we were able to donate about 50 dog toys.
After students learned about the importance of civic engagement projects and learned all of the steps for how we created this one, we began working on the project. Students were given step-by-step directions for how to make their dog toys. Once we had finished making the dog toys, I took the toys to the Spokane Humane Society to donate them. While I was there I was able to actually hand the toys to each one of the dogs and take some photos to show my students. The students really loved making the toys with various colored t-shirts to make them personalized. I kept hearing students talk about how excited they were for the dogs to get their toys, and how their toy was going to be favored by the dogs. Students were able to think about the dogs in our shelters and how a simple act of kindness can bring joy to them. My students also genuinely enjoyed making their dog toys, so they now know that community service and civic engagement projects are fun to do!
I was very pleased with how excited the students were to be making these dog toys, and with how many t-shirts were donated! I didn’t even use all the t-shirts that were donated, and I still had enough extra for every student to make two, and for dog toy making to now be a station in the room for “Fun Friday” and for when their work is finished early! I was also very pleased with how well all the second graders did with braiding, it was even surprising and awesome how much students helped one another to make the best dog toys possible. I realized after doing this however, that this was not a one-person job. It worked great having my mentor teacher there to help me, so if I do this again I will make sure to have at least one volunteer there to help me. My mentor teacher also suggested that we sell some of the toys to parents, staff, and other community members and use that money to donate to the Humane Society so that they can buy even more supplies for dogs. This is definitely a great idea, and something I will probably incorporate next time I do this activity.
(M. Nelson)
I also completed my project by making dog toys with my placement class. I was placed in Rathdrum in an urban setting with twenty-one first graders. Some similar aspects of our project were using old t-shirts, making short or long dog toys, giving students step-by-step instructions, partnering with an organization, and having help from our mentor. The different aspects are the organization we used, I partnered with the Kootenai Humane Society because they were local to where I was placed. Another distinct aspect was the grade level, you taught second graders and I taught first graders. After teaching a lesson about making a difference through donating, I started the project with my students. I found it challenging to teach braiding to first graders so after showing a video on how to braid I went around their tables to help them. Some of my first graders completed one while others completed three. After working on this project for two days and we were able to create a total of sixty-three dog toys. One thing I would change next time is being more involved with the organization because I like how you were able to interact with the dogs. Another thing I would change is parent involvement. For future civic engagement projects, I would create a newsletter to send home to parents. This will allow parents to know more about the importance of student involvement in the community, explain the purpose of each project, and hopefully prompt parents to allow students to interact with the dogs themselves so the students can see the difference they have made. I also like your idea of selling dog toys to parents, staff, and other community members because some of my students wanted to take the toys home with them.