Portfolio tag: McGlynn Elementary 2018-2019

Water Conservation Posters

3rd-graders Delilah and Anayah decided to design posters encouraging people to conserve water, which were then laminated and displayed in the student bathrooms in the school. They chose to do this project because water is a valuable natural resource that we shouldn’t waste. They hope that their posters will remind students to conserve water when using the school bathrooms.

Cards for Soldiers

2nd-graders Ryan and Joseph wanted to do something to thank our troops overseas, and they knew they wanted to do something with an art component to it, so they decided on making cards to send to soldiers for the holidays. Under the expert guidance of MHS CCSR members Brittany and Laura, Ryan and Joseph each made construction paper cards. They decorated their cards with pictures and wrote nice messages inside. A few students from other groups who were done with their work also joined in to make cards as well. We sent the cards via Operation Gratitude, an organization that sends care packages and letters to troops overseas.

"The Protectors" Birdhouse Makers

This group of 1st-graders came up with the creative idea of making birdhouses and bird feeders to install around the McGlynn grounds. Their goal was to create spaces to help shelter and protect birds during the winter. With the help and guidance of PTG mom Renee Hanley, these ambitious kids put together wooden birdhouses using kits, then painted and decorated them in different colors and styles, and ultimately hung them from trees all over the McGlynn outdoor grounds.

Cradles to Crayons Coat Drive

This group of 4th-grade students organized a winter coat drive for Cradles to Crayons, a local nonprofit that provides children and families who are homeless or otherwise in need with clothing and school supplies. They designed a flyer for their coat drive and had it sent home with students, and held their drive the week before Christmas vacation. They collected about 20 coats to be donated! We arranged for a Cradles to Crayons employee, Chris, to come and pick up the coats during the school day so that the group got to meet him!

Saving Gorilla Habitats

This group of 4th and 5th graders wanted to do something to help endangered animals, and after some internet research, they found out that the Franklin Park Zoo and the Stone Zoo collect used cell phones to save gorilla habitats. To start, they printed up some coloring pages of gorillas for younger students to color that also tell about the phone donation program. They collected several used electronics that were dropped off at the Stone Zoo in person.

Saving Reptiles

Both of these 3rd-grade girls have had snakes or other reptiles as pets, and it made them sad that a lot of people think snakes are scary or gross. Together, they made a poster about snakes and shared their stories of positive experiences they’ve had with pet snakes, with the hope of reducing people’s fear and disgust towards snakes and other reptiles, and maybe encouraging others to adopt a reptile as a pet.

Bathroom Beautification

This group of 3rd-5th graders identified the student bathrooms as a part of our school that could be improved. They observed that the bathrooms get messy very often, with water and paper towels on the floor. They’ve put together data tables and worked on collecting data from each of the student bathrooms in the school, which included as which days and times are the most problematic, and how many students use the bathrooms each day. From this data, they have identified common problems such as smells and faulty equipment and have fixed them, beautifying the bathrooms of the McGlynn Elementary School.

Peer Tutoring

These 3rd and 5th graders decided that they wanted to give back to the younger students at McGlynn, and started a peer tutoring group to work with students in Kindergarten. They’ve worked with the Kindergarten teachers to identify students who needed some 1-on-1 extra help, and have each been meeting with a different Kindergarten student once a week for 45 minutes to work on foundational literacy skills. The group spends CCSR meeting time preparing an activity to do with their Kindergarten friends for that following week, and then they take time during lunch to visit the Kindergarten classrooms and tutor their buddy. The Kindergarten students benefit from the extra help, and the Kindergarten teachers are thrilled to have former students of theirs coming in to help!

"Kindness in the Middle" Anti-Bullying Posters

These 2nd and 3rd-graders put their artistic talents to good use by creating posters promoting kindness and anti-bullying. When finished, their posters were laminated and displayed around the school, giving students colorful reminders about how to treat others.

Recycling and the Environment

This group of civic-minded 5th-graders opted to continue the work on recycling that some other students started last year. Back in October, they came up with several ideas that they’re currently working their way through. They wrote a letter to Mayor Muccini-Burke’s office, asking what they could do to improve recycling in our school and citywide. The Mayor responded back and asked the students to design a flyer on recycling to be sent out city-wide! The group also made a picture book about recycling that other children can read.

Animal Shelters

This trio of compassionate 4th-graders organized a donation drive for two local animal shelters, the Northeast Animal Shelter and The Kitty Connection. To publicize the drive, they made a video for classroom teachers to show to their students. They filmed a video advertising the drive was shown in classrooms to kick off the drive. They also designed flyers to send home with students on the same day that teachers showed the video. They asked people to donate used towels, blankets, and newspaper (items that the shelters need to line cages), as well as pet toys and food.

Kidney Disease Prevention Flyers

This group of 4th-graders got the idea for their project from Alex’s mom, who is a doctor. They wanted their relatives and other people in the community to have easily accessible information on simple ways to help lower their risk of developing kidney disease. They did online research to find the information they wanted. Their flyers included lists of possible signs of kidney disease, as well as lists of foods and habits that are healthy and unhealthy for the kidneys. They distributed their flyers to the School Nurse’s office, as well as to their own families.

Homeless Care Packages

These 3rd and 4th-graders decided they wanted to put together care packages for homeless people. They started by looking online for ideas for items to include in the care packages. Once they had come up with a list, they designed posters that they hung up around the school, as well as a flyer that they sent home with students, outlining the items they needed. Through online research, they identified a local homeless shelter called Medford Family Life Education, and this is where they decided their donations would go. Once the donations had all come in, they organized them into individual care packages in ziploc bags. At some point soon, they will present their donations to a representative from the shelter.

Adopt a Panda

This group of 4th and 5th graders had a passion for endangered wildlife, and discovered the World Wildlife Fund’s “adopt-a-panda” program. In this program, people from all over the world can financially sponsor a panda for a period of time. These students all really liked pandas, and decided they wanted to do this. In order to raise the money to adopt their own panda, this group joined with several other groups to put on a fundraiser during lunch time. They made origami bookmarks, then charged their classmates to decorate the bookmarks in the cafeteria. This fundraiser generated enough money for all of the groups involved to do what they’d aimed to do, and this group adopted their panda! The symbolic adoption came with a kit including a stuffed panda, an adoption certificate, a panda fact card, and a reusable bag.

CCSR Website Team

These inquisitive and tech-savvy 2nd-graders decided to try their hand at developing and maintaining a web page for McGlynn Elementary CCSR. These students took time to interview each of the other groups and write brief summaries of what each group is doing. When done, they typed up their summaries, which then got copied and pasted into a GoogleSite set up by MHS CCSR Webmaster Darwin Do. The Website Team was also responsible for web page photography; in fact, many of the group photographs in these write-ups were taken by members of the Website Team! These students got to learn the new skill of web page design, while also documenting CCSR’s hard work.

Homeless Care Packages - 2

This group of enterprising first graders wanted to help children and adults that were facing homelessness. They brainstormed a list of supplies that they believed would be helpful and also did a little computer research to come up with more ideas, with the help of PTG mom Renee Hanley. They decided that they would like to raise the money to purchase sample sizes of essential supplies that they could donate. The first graders came up with the idea of having a “decorate a bookmark” table at lunches for a week. They made the blank bookmarks and worked at the table assisting peers in bookmark designs. They combined forces with a few other groups and raised over $140! Many supplies were purchased, bagged and donated to the local homeless shelter.

Braille Books for Blind Children

This group of second graders with a love of reading wanted to spread the joy to students that had a challenge reading. They chose to raise money to purchase books that offered both print and braille for preschool children with vision impairments. They joined forces with a few other groups to run a “decorate a bookmark” table at school during lunch. Before they could sell the bookmarks, however, they had to make a few hundred corner bookmarks. They got really good at this! Along with their CCSR peers, they were able to raise over $140! The students then went online to locate just the right books. They ordered some great books which will be donated to a Medford preschooler with a vision disability.

Growing Food for the Homeless

This group of students also wanted to help the homeless and wanted to combine gardening with their help. They chose several vegetables to grow that they started in school and planned to move to the community garden behind the McGlynn in the spring. They consistently watered and cared for sprouts that continued to grow and thrive. The vegetables got moved outside in the spring and will be harvested when they are full grown. The vegetables will be given to a local agency providing food for less fortunate individuals.

Beautiful School/Beautiful Playground

These 3 students noticed that the back of the school needed some sprucing up. They planted some flowers in a planter and arranged for the tree in the back playground to get a covering of mulch to cover the roots and improve the look. These students enjoyed watering their flowers in the classroom during the winter and growing them from seeds. It was exciting for them to see the plants sprout and grow.

Newcomers’ Map of McGlynn Elementary

Starting at a new school can be scary. This group of students wanted to do something to make things a little easier for new students at the McGlynn. They came up with the idea of making a large-scale map of the school, highlighting relevant locations, to place in the school lobby. They chose locations and did the color-coding and keys all on their own. Once it was finished, we enlarged it on thick poster paper and in August it will be put in the lobby for new students to reference on the first day of school.

Animal Shelter Fundraiser - 2

Inspired by the students who collected donations for local animal shelters earlier in the year, this group decided to do another fundraiser for local animal shelters. Using the money collected from our bookmark-decorating fundraiser and our “penny wars” fundraiser, these students purchased a variety of high-need items for local animal shelters.

Northeast Animal Shelter Mural Design

In what we hope will be an ongoing partnership between McGlynn CCSR and Northeast Animal Shelter, the Volunteer Coordinator at the shelter enlisted the help of these five artistic 2nd-graders to design a new mural to hang up in the shelter. The shelter walls are covered with art by a variety of local artists, and we were honored to be asked to contribute our own work of art. The students came up with their own designs featuring dogs and cats and centered around the theme of community. Over the weeks, they sketched, transferred, and finally painted their beautiful scene of a neighborhood for cats and dogs. They hope that their mural will be a cheerful addition to the walls of the shelter!

“Recycle, Trash, Compost” Sorting Game

Building upon the success of their book earlier in the year, this group of 5th-graders wanted to create a game to reinforce the recycling concepts taught in their book. Using only paper and markers, these girls created a sorting game for younger students to play during lunch. In this game, students sort the different objects into their appropriate bins: trash, recycling, compost, or electronics, as well as answering questions related to the topic. The group has been teaching 1st-graders how to play the game during lunch!

Medford for Kids

The students in this group wanted to brag a little about how wonderful they think Medford is! They researched multiple categories of things which would be of interest to children in Medford and put together a flyer that will be made available to other children. They included offerings at the library, parks, and schools in Medford, restaurants and fast food places that would appeal to children. They also listed different sports you could participate in Medford as well as locations kids go to swim or skate. And, of course, they included ice cream places!

Penny Wars: A Fundraiser

When it was decided that our CCSR club would have a fundraiser to help a McGlynn family that had become homeless as well as provide funding for different CCSR projects, these students took on the job of creating the flyer for families and the notification for students in classrooms. They worked hard on the computer designing a flyer that would include rules, be concise and be easy to read. Their information to students included easy to understand rules. Additionally, these students took a lead role in making sure the penny wars fundraiser was publicized in the school and run seamlessly.

Art for Others

This group of first graders was happy to take a paintbrush in hand and create a way in order to provide happiness for someone else. The goal of this group was to paint on canvases provided by the nonprofit group Art for Hospice. They first decided on where their art would be donated. Most students quickly chose to honor veterans at the Soldier’s Home in Chelsea, MA. A few students made it known that their preference was to have their artwork given to ill residents at a local hospice center. The students worked hard over many weeks designing, sketching and finally painting on the 11x14 canvases, with the help of PTG volunteer moms Renee Hanley and Vanessa Amero. Additionally, students created cards to accompany their artwork telling about themselves and the inspiration for their work.

Happiness in Giving

The students in this group wanted to make someone’s day brighter by providing painted canvases for residents at either a hospice center or the Soldier’s Home for veterans in Chelsea, MA. They worked hard designing, sketching, and finally painting canvases provided by the nonprofit group Art for Hospice. The completed 11x14 canvases had uplifting, happy pictures that would be provided to brighten up rooms for residents. This group also provided cards to accompany their canvases and explain their inspiration for the art.