Nickels for Chickens

Today was COUNTING day! We lugged out the four HUGE bags of water bottles that have been collected so far.  Before we started counting I explained to the kids that each bottle was worth one nickel.  One nickel is worth five cents.  We talked about how one dollar equals one hundred cents. Then it was time to count by fives (each bottle is worth a nickel) to see how many bottles we would need to make a dollar. Just like the election, there were several recounts to be sure that we really needed 20 bottles to make one dollar.  For every twenty bottles, we put a tally mark on a poster written by the kids.  We need 20 dollars to buy a flock of chicks for Heifer International.  I am pleased to announce that we already have enough to buy ONE flock of chicks, and now the kids are setting their sights on a second flock.

For those of you familiar with the Common Core Standards, we were learning to
*say numbers as we count
* count to one hundred in different ways
*count starting with any number
*understand the last number said is the total number of objects.

We then worked on writing a thank you card to the generous co-worker of Camden's mom who donated three of the large bags.  Everyone took turns writing words and sounds in words.  Then we each added a chicken to the card.  The Common Core Standards we covered in making this card are as follows:
*Write upper and lower case letters.
*Add words to a sentence to make it clearer.
*Write the sounds I hear in words.
*Spell words.
*Add /s/ to show more than one.
*Say the sounds in words.
*Count, make, blend, and segment sounds of words.

The kids were so jazzed about counting the bottles and making the thank you card they forgot they were in school.  This service project we are working on is covering the standards, and hopefully changing the lives of people we will never even meet.