Students earn food for charity

Decatur first-grade classes learns value of work to give to those in need

Janet Barkley’s first-grade class posed with food they earned with home chores.

Janet Barkley’s first-grade class posed with food they earned with home chores.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

— Students in Janet Barkley's and Rachel Mains’ first-grade classrooms at Decatur Northside Elementary School not only collected food for those in need this past Christmas, they did chores at home to earn the food from their parents.

“We’ve had wonderful success. They’re so proud of themselves,” Barkley said of her young students.

Of course, parents would still have given food if the students hadn’t worked for it, but allowing them to earn the food provided a wonderful learning experience, Barkley explained.

The project allowed the classes to have conversations about the value of money, the way people in the past traded goods anditems instead of money, and even how tough it is to do the dishes.

Each food item has a small sheet of paper with the student's name and the chore he or she did to earn it so the recipient will know a child worked to earn the food, she said.

The two classrooms will each provide a food basket for a family in need. Shawn Sperry and Chris Buffer, owners of the Decatur Livestock Auction, donated two turkeys to complete the baskets, Barkley said.

When asked what chores they did to earn the food,the bright-eyed students eagerly raised their hands and shouted out answers such as “fed my cat all week,” “cleaned my room,” and “did the dishes.”

“It’s wonderful to see them so excited about actually earning it,” Barkley said.

School News, Pages 12 on 01/04/2012