Parkview students

way to support their community. “They were so excited, they wrote stories on a clip board, sometimes we would go to Victoria Park here by the school, then we corrected them together on the smart boards.”

As grade three students, they had been practicing their writing all year. “We practiced main characters, problem, details, and solution. We tried to stick to this formula.”

Students got creative and they each wrote a one-page story on a topic of their choosing. “Some were about hiking, ninjas, there were ghost stories. They could all write whatever they wanted, except for violence of course.”

Together, they sold each story for 5$. “Some people would give more because they knew it was for a good cause. Our goal was 100 stories but when we had 50 or 60, after a while it became 500. In the end, we raised $620. They were selling to neighbors, parents, grandparents, uncles”

They decided to donate the funds to

SOS Dépannage Moisson Granby, who have a general store and a café to raise funds to provide a food bank for the community and a community garden program. “They invited us to visit and they explained where the money would go and it was really great.”

Rossignol said that the project helped motivate her students in their learning. “Some kids don’t like writing, but this was a big motivator; to write stories and help their community.”

Rossignol said that the project was a last-minute end of the year initiative, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity for her students to take on their great idea. “I would have asked other teachers to do it but it was the end of the year. I couldn’t let it go by, it was too great and I needed to do something.”

The project not only played a role in the community , it contributed to learning, helping in their writing and teaching them mathematical concepts like counting money, Rossignol plans to continue the project with her future classes. “It’s something that I’ll do in future years and encourage other schools to do. Why not make money for the community with this idea? The kids are engaged and they have such wonderful ideas. Helping others, empathy, it’s a big part of how I teach to get them engaged in their community.”