Last October, I told my pupils in Pompton School about my plan. "I'd like you to do jobs to make some 1 ." I said. "Then we'll buy food for someone in need."
I wanted them to experience that it's 2 to give than to receive. I hoped they could experience a sense of their own ability to make a change.
Early in Thanksgiving week, the children couldn't wait to 3. Before paying for the turkey and other food we chose in the supermarket, Kristine cried.
"Flowers!" And the group all ran toward the holiday 4.
"You can't eat flowers!" I said 5. After all, it was helpful to buy more food.
"But Mrs. Sherlock," came the loud 6," we want flowers."
In the middle of the plants, there was a pot of unusually purple mums."7 will like this one," the children agreed.
8 the address of a poor grandmother who had lived alone for years, we set off. An hour later, we stopped in front of a small house. A thin woman with a 9 face came to meet us.
As the kids carried all the food in, the old woman oohed and ached—much to her visitors" pleasure. When Amy put the mums on the table, the woman seemed 10. "She's wishing it was a bag of food," I thought.
11 is your close friend in the woods?" Michael asked.
The woman brightened. "The birds. They often fly over for food 12 I share my bread with them." She said.
Then we returned to the car. Through the window we saw her walk past the turkey, straight to the 13. She put her face in them and looked up with a big smile. She was 14 before our eyes!
In that one short moment, the children had seen for themselves the 15 they owned to make a change. Sometimes a person needed a pot of nice purple flowers on a dark November day.
