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Market Day for the Highway of Heroes!

This year, students in our class decided use our class fund raising event, "Market Day," to try to raise enough money ($150.00) to sponsor a tree on the Highway of Heroes."

This website explains the Highway of Heroes Living Tribute Project:
https://hohtribute.ca/

This is how Market Day worked:

Students in our class were invited to donate gently used toys, games, books and videos that they no longer needed and were willing to sell to friends. After everything had been collected, students divided the items into four categories, or "stores," created storefront signs, and priced the items they would be selling. All items were priced between 25 cents and a dollar.

Then students were invited to bring up to $5.00 in change, to spend at Market Day. When Market Day arrived, students set up their stores and took turns selling, or browsing and purchasing goods. Then, they counted their profits and we tallied up how much we raised.

Here are some images of Market Day:

After our sale, it was time to tally up the money raised:

All of the money was donated to the Canadian charity tasked with planting trees along the Highway of Heroes, and our leftover sale items were donated to School Counsel's "Christmas Shopping Day" initiative.

Here is the letter we sent with our donation:

Thank you and congratulations to all the students and parents who supported our fund-raiser with donations of goods and money. We are proud that we could raise enough money to sponsor a tree on the Highway of Heroes!

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UPDATE:  February 9, 2018.
We just received a note and certificate from the Highway of Heroes Legacy Project, thanking our class for sponsoring a tree in memory of a Canadian veteran.

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Thank you for visiting our class BLOG.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me (Margaret Black):  mblack@scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.

4 thoughts on “Market Day for the Highway of Heroes!

  1. Navpreet Dhugga

    I think this is a great idea. The students are learning a number of great lessons like money management, mathematics, the importance of charity and being environmental friendly (selling used toys and books and planting a tree). I especially liked how the students were selling their gently used toys, games and books because the students are learning that helping out the community is more important than their toys. The students also seemed to enjoy the event. If I could make a suggestion, perhaps next time you could get all the students to write a letter to Highway of Heroes which would incorporate lessons in letter writing, spelling and grammar. How will you and your class continue to keep in contact with Highway of Heroes so that your students are able to see the product of their hardworking? Are they invited to seeing the tree planting? I think this would be important because charity will no longer be an abstract concept to them instead they will see that their charity work results in real change.

    Reply
    1. Margaret Black

      Thank you for your thoughtful note about "Market Day." If this was one of our only outreach projects, I would agree that additional follow-up might be beneficial. However, our class engages in about eight different community service projects each year. Every project features different curriculum connections. Although "Market Day" doesn't include a writing component, "Meaning of Home" and persuasive letter writing for a real purpose are both exclusively writing-based. Most of the charities we support are volunteer-run, with few personnel and material resources, so our goal is to be an asset to them, without asking for anything in return. Most do choose to acknowledge the students' efforts, however. The Highway of Heroes charity sent us their standard thank you letter and certificate. The volunteers who run the turtle hospital, in Peterborough, offered to provide us with a tour via Skype the year that "Market Day" benefited their organisation. The wildlife rehab. centres usually send us pictures of animals enjoying the fruits of our labours after our annual "Food Drive for Orphaned Wildlife," and the people at The Fauna Foundation, near Montreal, always send us a heartfelt thank you note, after they receive our "Rock the Sock" contributions. As far as field trips go, our board has an approved list of facilities that have submitted up-to-date insurance information. Unfortunately, a tree planting site beside Highway 401 would not qualify as an approved field trip destination, and the distance (about a three hour round trip from the school) would entail very expensive bussing arrangements.

      P.S. This fall, students in my class rescued an injured sparrow that was on the school yard. It is likely that it struck a window. After work, I drove the bird an hour south to a wildlife rehab. facility. When the bird was well enough to fly again, I picked him up, took him back to school, and let the students who found him release him back into the wild. This was an unexpected "outreach project" with wonderful, hands-on results!

      Reply
      1. Helen DeWaard

        Thanks so much for sharing these stories on your blog site. I know that my students at the Faculty of Education in Orillia are learning from this model of how to blog as an educator, and how to share student learning experiences in meaningful ways. I have shared your blog site with teacher candidates so they can learn from this example. Again, thanks!
        Helen DeWaard

        Reply

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