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Food for the Homeless
Created by Rachel Saidi, Howard County Public Schools
Subject Area: Math
Grade Level: 6-12
This service-learning program is infused into the math curriculum,
focusing on topics in consumer math and preparation for the Maryland
Functional Math Test. The unit is called Business Skills, and it
reinforces basic skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication,
decimals, fractions, and percents. We spend about one week on business
concepts of profit, loss, gross, net, discounts and taxes. The students
then conduct a fund raiser using these skills, and take their profits to
buy food to make bag lunches to donate to a local soup kitchen.
Partnerships are created among the students, the school, community food
wholesalers and potential donators, and the soup kitchen itself. Because
the fund raiser is held at school, it enhances school spirit, especially
if a thematic approach is taken; selling balloons for Mother's Day or
Valentine's Day, for example. Teachers may choose to do this project as a
one-time or ongoing project, as many times per year as they find it fits
into the curriculum. It is best used to reinforce the above mentioned
basic skills.
Preparation: Students prepare for service by building
business skills and vocabulary, and through readings and discussions on
the issue of homelessness.
Action: Students create poster advertisements,
work rosters, order forms and letters to local businesses to solicit
donations for the fund raiser. With the profits from the fund raiser and
donations, they make 300 sandwiches and bag lunches to donate to a soup
kitchen.
Reflection: Students write in their journals each day, and
produce a poster that represents their contribution to the project.
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