As I was reading the initial post. that was the same idea that hit me! When I was watching the show last night, I thought of trying to organize something at our school. We are hosting a Scholastic warehouse sale at the end of May-maybe I could tie it in with that.

On the ABC sitcom "8 Simple Rules....." they were doing a plug for nationalbakesale.org (?) I am sure abc.com would have the info, I am not good at remebering things. It raises money for hungry Americankids! I think that would be a really neat thing for kids to do.

IF THERE ARE BUSINESSES AROUND TOWN THAT HAVE "WEEDING" OR OTHER TENDING TO DO TO THEIR LANDSCAPING THE KIDS AT ANY AGE CAN WEED, PLANT AND BEAUTIFY! SOME OF OUR OLDER KIDS ARE PAINTING A MURAL ON THE SIDE OF A BUILDING IN TOWN THAT IS JUST BIG AND BLANK IN ORDER TO BEAUTIFY. TOY DRIVES, CLOTHES DRIVES AND FOOD DRIVES ARE ALWAYS GOOD AND HELPFUL. ADOPTING BUSINESSES TO HELP THEM DO ODD JOBS IN THEIR OFFICE IS GOOD TOO- STAPLING, COPYING, SORTING, MAILING, STAMPING- KIDS LIKE TO DO THAT KINDA STUFF!

Hi...
This past year our school adopted a nursing home. each holiday all of our students draw cards or write letters to the residents. We also got a list from the home of residents who would like a penpal...we match them up with kids. at the end of the year we are hoping for a meeting. We have had certain grades go on fieldtrips there as well.We often send art work for bulletin boards and rooms. Another project we do is through the local senior nutrition site(they serve meals and also deliver to shut ins)for them our students might make placemates, table decorations or cards for the shut ins. As far as a service project for arbor day you could arrange to clean a park or playground. We do the yearly food drive, mitten drive and this year collected pennies for leukemia foundation. This is our first year that we have done community service and it has been a great experience for our students.

My kids bring home pine trees every year, does that count?

You could always go to a retirement or nursing home and have the kids to sing a song or do a skit.

We just did care packages for military people in our community.

Also our Family Resource Center conducts a food drive right before the winter holidays. We don't have a local food bank but I am sure they could could always use extra food in their pantries.

Your older students could probably plant flowers for local business. The Girl Scouts or FFA usually does our landscaping.

In order to be a part of BETA Club when I was in the middle school we had to do 5 or 6 tasks for other people that we couldn't except money for and that person had to sign a paper saying we did so.

Any ideas for a community service type activity for our K-5 student body? Has anyone had success with any particular ideas? Maybe something focused around Earth Day?