2.  Service is when you help someone or do a job to help a cause because you want to. No one pays you or gives you a prize for helping.

3.  Cleaning up trash in a river is service.

4.  Looking at water samples in science class is learning.

5.  Kids cleaning up trash, taking samples of water from local streams and working on a plan to show other people the need for keeping our rivers clean is service learning.

6. There are usually 5 steps to a service learning project: I - Investigate a problem or need in the school, community, or world P - Make a plan to try to solve the problem and prepare A - Take action to solve the problem or need R - Reflect, think, talk, and write about how the plan is going D - Demonstrate what was accomplished when the service learning project is over and CELEBRATE!

7.  Last year 40 fourth graders studied about MALNUTRITION. Malnutrition is when a person is not getting enough food. Every year over 3-5 million children die from manutrition. The students decided to do something about this BIG PROBLEM!.

8.  First the students decided to investigate what malnutrition is and where it happens the most. They discovered many children die each year in Africa from starvation. They also did research on the internet and found out about how one doctor, Dr. Mark Manary from St. Louis, came up with a cure to stop malnutrition in children.

9.  Next the students invited Dr. Manary to school to talk to them about his cure. Dr. Manary couldn’t come, but his wife Mrs. Manary did.  She explained why children in Africa are dying from starvation. She talked about what a child needs to eat in order to survive the hard life in Malawi, Africa.

10.  Mrs. Manary then told students about the wonderful special peanut butter Dr. Manary had invented. African children who eat Dr. Manary’s special peanut butter for 4-6 weeks can get well and live a normal life.  The peanut butter is free to sick children even though it costs $1 to make each jar of peanut butter.  Mrs. Manary told how $25 worth of peanut butter can save a child’s life!!

11.  The fourth graders decided they wanted to help Dr. and Mrs. Manary stop malnutrition and save lives.  They made a plan to make cards and sell them on the internet. They would then give the money raised from their cards to Project Peanut Butter to help kids in Africa.  They also decided to make a presentation that would tell what Project Peanut Butter was about to get more people to help.

12.  The students had to learn about making a presentation on the computer so their story could be put on a website for others to see.  The students had to learn how to make cards on the computer so they could be printed for the people who wanted to buy them.  The group of fourth graders had many meetings to talk about how to divide up jobs and work as a team on this project.  The fourth graders set a goal to see if they could raise enough money to save a whole village of kids in Africa.

13.  Fourth graders gave the whole school a paper about Project Peanut Butter to take home for parents to see. The students took orders from people who wanted to buy their cards.  They worked as a team and made a big presentation on the computer. They put their presentation on a website.  They wrote letters to Dr. and Mrs. Manary to ask more questions about Project Peanut Butter.

14.  The boys and girls wrote about how good they felt about helping save someone’s life.  The students had meetings to talk about if something was or wasn’t working out right in their plan and what to do differently.  The kids talked about how they liked having jobs to do on the project and how they all helped!

15.  The fourth grade had an assembly and told the whole school how much money they had raised and they had met their goal!  The kids invited Mrs. Manary back and presented her with the money to take to Dr. Manary so he could make more peanut butter.  Dr. and Mrs. Manary wrote the class a BIG thank you note for saving a whole village!!!

16.  How do you think the fourth grade felt?  What do you think the African children thought about fourth grade kids helping them with their big problem?  How do you think Dr. and Mrs. Manary felt?  What did the fourth grade have to learn in order to be successful in their service learning project?  Do you think the fourth grade will want to help other people in need in the future?

17.  1. Find a big problem to solve, or someone who really needs help.  2. Investigate the problem and find out what you need to learn that would help you solve the problem.  3. Make a plan to solve the problem and set a goal.  4. Put your plan into action.  5. Reflect how your plan is going.  6. Celebrate how your service project turned out!

18.  When we look around our community, neighborhoods, and schools there are usually big problems that need to be solved.  Just because you’re a kid doesn’t mean you can’t help with problem solving!  We will be reading Rodeo Dog on our Nooks for inspiration about a big problem right here in St. Charles!

19.  We will begin on our first service project next week.  Big problems usually take time to work out. We will work on our service project two times a week for many weeks.  There will be lots of jobs for everyone to do!

20.  Service Learning finding a problem that needs soving, learning something new and then taking action and using what you learned to solve a big problem.