Spreading the love: Carmichaels students make a difference with words
Carmichaels fifth-graders brought to school gifts for adoptable animals at Humane Society of Greene County earlier this month. The gifts, along with persuasive essays penned by students, were dropped off to the humane society by fifth-grade teacher Brittney Bell. (Photos courtesy of Brittney Bell)
Courtesy of Brittney Bell
Courtesy of Brittney Bell
A persuasive essay decorates Harper鈥檚 crate at the Humane Society of Greene County, where cats and dogs hope the writings by Carmichaels fifth-graders will convince a loving family to take them home.
Courtesy of Brittney Bell
Courtesy of Brittney Bell
Adoptable dogs at the Humane Society of Greene County wait for loving fur-ever homes, and hope the essays hanging from their kennels, crafted by Carmichaels fifth-grade students for Do Good December, convince a kind person to take the pups home.
Carmichaels Area School District celebrates Do Good December each year as a way to give back in ways big and small. Along with crafting persuasive essays to help humane society animals get adopted, the fifth-grade class also donated toys, proudly displayed here, to the nonprofit. (Photos courtesy of Brittney Bell)
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Carmichaels Area School District fifth-graders earned their spot on the Nice List this year, after completing a month-long writing and math unit as part of the district鈥檚 Do Good December initiative.
鈥淒o Good December is something that I saw people doing not for schools, just in general online, and I kind of adapted it for our school. The first year I did it was 2019. It was just my homeroom. I had them do challenges every day; I鈥檇 have them send cards to the senior center or Children鈥檚 Hospital, just so they would be thinking of other people,鈥� said Brittney Bell, fifth-grade English and Language Arts teacher, who shared her DGD calendar with the school in case other teachers wanted to participate. 鈥淭he message that I try to get across to the kids is the small things that we do add up.鈥�
CASD has spread kindness in big ways and small for three holiday seasons, and this year, Bell鈥檚 fifth-grade team, including math teacher Kate Hillsman and learning support teacher Tymme Freeman, worked together to make a big, joyful impact at the Humane Society of Greene County.
鈥淢iss Hillsman found a resource that had something to do with the humane society. She was thinking about doing something with that as a warm-up for her classes,鈥� said Bell. 鈥淚 saw something where someone was writing letters. (Hillsman) just had brought the idea of partnering to my mind 鈥� maybe if we reached out to the humane society, they鈥檇 let us hang these letters on (the animals鈥�) crates. We all love animals; we feel this is something that鈥檚 close to our heart.鈥�
The project, which cultivated students鈥� math, research, reading and writing skills, touched the young adults, too.
鈥淚 had one student who wrote six papers. Six. She only had to write one,鈥� laughed Bell. 鈥淭he humane society kept updating their website, so my kids were like, oh, no, we have to write about Cleo. They wanted them to get adopted.鈥�
Freeman鈥檚 fifth-graders, too, went above and beyond to help adorable, adoptable dogs and cats.
鈥淣ormally my kids are not very excited for writing, just because it鈥檚 really difficult for them. It鈥檚 hard to find writing projects that they enjoy. They were really, really excited,鈥� said Freeman. 鈥淲e researched the humane society website. They started brainstorming some ideas to persuade people to take these animals home, why they would make good pets. They were so excited when we got to look at the real-life pictures of these animals.鈥�
It was the real-world-difference-making that encouraged students to put in extra time and effort.
鈥淚n their minds, they鈥檙e thinking, if these animals get adopted, it鈥檚 because of me,鈥� Freeman said. 鈥淭hey really, really tried their best. They were really proud when they got to see the final project.鈥�
The final project was handwritten persuasive essays penned by passionate fifth-graders, which now hang on adoptable cat and dog crates at the Humane Society of Greene County.
Bell and her twin sister, Sarah Bell, hung essays on animals鈥� crates ahead of Christmas Day, and delivered donations of toys, treats and food to Jane Gapen, director of the humane society.
鈥淲hen Sarah and I were hanging up the papers at the humane society, the volunteers were going through and reading them and some of them were in tears. These kids just wrote such beautiful things about these animals,鈥� Bell said.
Finding forever homes for animals staying at the humane society is the goal of this year鈥檚 Do Good December, of course, but in a way, the project reached beyond the borders of Greene County.
鈥淎t Carmichaels, we鈥檙e encouraged to make connections within the community in general. Our superintendent, principal, are very invested in us. I鈥檝e never done (DGD) on this big of a scale, having them all work together to make a difference instead of making them write something Christmas-themed,鈥� Bell said. 鈥淚 wanted the kids to see that you can make a difference with writing and it鈥檚 not just something teachers make you do in school. You can use your words to make the world a better place; you can be a difference maker. They were so invested in getting these animals adopted. I think we had a lot of good discussions about the world is bigger than just us and there are things we can do to make it a brighter place.鈥�