Kindergarten Service Project – Children’s Hospital Pillowcases

My kindergarten class embarked upon one of the most worthwhile, amazing Service Projects ever!  We had a conversation in my classroom about “going to the hospital.”  That led to children discussing their fears about staying overnight in the hospital.  I shared with my students that our Children’s Hospital accepts really cute, bright, cheery pillowcases for children to use (and keep) when they have to stay over night in the hospital to make them feel more comfortable and happy.  We decided to MAKE PILLOWCASES for the Children that have stay overnight at the hospital.

First we needed to know what was required for the pillowcases.  We got our guidelines from ConKerr Cancer, a nationwide organization that provides smiles to children with life changing illnesses to make them feel special.

I sent home a newsletter to all the parents telling them about our project and asking for their (optional) participation.  My kindergarten students were to choose the fabric for 2 pillowcases and help their parent with the measuring!  The parent was asked to do the sewing.  If they did not know how to sew, I offered to do the sewing for them!  Several parents took me up on this!!  (I LOVE sewing!!!) 

My student’s were absolutely delighted to show the fabric they picked out at school!!  And, this project took on a multi-generational turn!!  Some of the mom’s that didn’t know how to sew asked their moms or grandmothers to help or teach them how to sew!  Some of the moms even put together a sewing club when the pillowcases were completed. 

We ended up with well over 100 pillowcases to send to Children’s Hospital!   This is a service project that works well year round, not just around Christmas!

A few of our pillowcases and some VERY proud creators!!

Christmas and Winter Themed Reader's Theater!

If you are searching for a way to get your students to enjoy reading, become more expressive, read aloud with confidence, become more fluent…then let the magic begin!!

I have found using Reader’s Theater with large and small groups really helps my students strengthen their reading and language arts skills!  My class CHEERS every time I tell them we are going to do Reader’s Theater!!  This technique makes reading come alive for your students and can really develop classroom full of confident readers!  It is especially important that the stories are fun and engaging!

Reader’s Theater is a great way to reach the individual needs of a variety of students at one time!  Accelerated readers can continue to develop expressive reading, and develop or expand their vocabulary.  Struggling readers are real legitimate reason to read aloud and to re-read.  Collaborating with peers is one of the most appealing features of Readers Theatre; students did not feel alone as they read, they did not have to read the whole text, and they experienced breaks between their reading.

Below you will see the Christmas and Winter Themed Reader's Theater scripts I have available!