Each Friday, the another jennifer blog shares stories of those who incorporate philanthropy into their everyday lives – personally and professionally – in a creative and unique way. If you have a story you’d like to share, please contact Jennifer. You can view past posts from the series here.
The 100th day of school is right around the corner (assuming the polar vortex doesn’t mess with your school schedule too much). While this post from 2012 is particularly popular right now, I wanted to share a Philanthropy Friday post from last year about how my son’s elementary school is celebrating with 400 acts of kindness. I just got the notice that they are doing the same thing this year. This year, G gets to donate to the organization where we’ve been volunteering.
The school does a lot to get the kids involved with giving back and helping others. I share this post with the hope that it will inspire others to initiate similar projects in their schools. You can never start incorporating philanthropy into a child’s life too early.
The following post was originally published on FEBRUARY 1, 2013.
G’s 100 stickers project from kindergarten
If you have children in school, you are probably aware of the celebrations and projects that pop up around this time of year to commemorate the 100th day of school.
I still don’t quite get why the 100th day is such a big deal, but it seems like most elementary schools around the country do something. I know this from my Facebook newsfeed and the fact that my 100 School Days Project Ideas post from last year is the most popular on the blog right now.
In the past, G has had to collect 100 items and put them on a poster board and in a bag. This year, there’s a philanthropic twist to his 100th day of school, because they are celebrating the 100th day of school with 400 acts of kindness.
This year, G’s school is challenging its 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders to come up with at least 100 donations for a specific local nonprofit. G and his fellow second graders were assigned the Coastal Humane Society, where we adopted Kona 11 years ago. The third graders are collecting items for the Midcoast Hunger Prevention Program. The fourth graders have Tedford Housing, and the fifth graders are taking care of the Brunswick Teen Center.
The school sent home a flyer describing their goal of collecting 100 items from each class for the designated nonprofits.They have students working on charts to keep track of their donations and show how close they are to their goal. The flyer also listed the items each nonprofit was most in need of to make shopping easy.
G had fun picking out dog toys and treats to bring in to school. In fact, he bugged us from the moment he brought the flyer home about making the trip to the pet store. He was the same way when the school was rallying together to collect food items during the holiday season.
Considering some of the kids at school might benefit directly from these donations, I think it’s a wonderful twist on the usual 100 school days projects. It gets kids giving early and excited to do so.
Is your child participating in a 100 schools days project? Is there a way to incorporate giving into it?
I’ve never really understood the big deal of the 100th day of school either, but I *love* that your school does it this way with the older kids. HOW FANTASTIC!! What a great way of getting kids involved in giving early on. YES!! 🙂 –Lisa
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I agree, Lisa. You can’t start teaching kids about giving back too early!
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Emma starts kindergarten this fall and they don’t seem to do anything like this in her pre-school, but now that you mentioned it, will definitely keep my eyes open. This really sounded like a perfect way to celebrate the 100 Days of School and loved the twist 🙂
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It started in Kindergarten for G. Early on, it’s a way to learn how to count to 100. Not sure when it stops, but I love the way the older elementary kids are celebrating!
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The younger grades here participate with the 100 days, but it’s usually bringing 100 things to school. My kids have mostly stuck to the paperclips route because apparently we’re not all that creative…or prepared here. Now that they are older they haven’t done it in years. I absolutely love what your school is doing! It’s a much better way to celebrate while doing something nice for the community around you and helping those in need!
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Agreed, Michelle. The whole brining 100 things to school thing gets old fast! I’m glad we only had to do that twice with G. The acts of kindness are much better!
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What a great idea! I should tell my school about this!
In Kindergarten and 1st, the 100th Day of School is just a creative way to teach the kids about the number 100 and to be able to visualize it. There’s so many fun math activities to do with 100! I’m preparing my 4 year old class for Kindergarten, and one skill we want them to learn is how to count to 100. Number concepts are hard from some children; I have a little boy who can’t get past 5 yet. We’re working on it every day!
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You should, Ginny Marie. I think it’s a great idea. G did some fun stuff in kindergarten and 1st grade around learning how to count to 100. It’s fun to see his class graduate to more advanced ways to celebrate 100.
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I love incorporating giving into the 100 day celebrations. And I agree that you can never start too early with getting kids involved with worthy causes!
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Absolutely, Ilene. I think it’s a genius idea!
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I had no ideas 100 Days of School was a thing! Of course, my girls are in ‘school’ year-round. I guess I’ll learn more about this when my oldest starts kindergarten next year.
Love that your son’s school celebrates with acts of kindness! I’m trying to introduce the idea of volunteering and giving back to my 4 year old. I think a trip to the local animal shelter is next on our list!
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It’s definitely an elementary school thing. A way to teach kids how to count to 100.
I think a trip to the animal shelter sounds like a great idea!
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I love the idea of making the 100th day of school into a big deal. I wouldn’t understand the hype otherwise, unless it was for good.
Our little co-op, hippie preschool doesn’t do anything like this, but elementary school is around the corner. Yikes to that.
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Yikes is right. I’m about to send my preschooler to kindergarten next fall. They’ll both be school-aged! I’ll be celebrating the fact that they still celebrate those first 100 days while I can. 🙂
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Well THIS is a heck of a lot better than any 100 day project I have ever SEEN!!! I love this! Your school has an amazing mission here. I just love this idea!!
Our school does a lot of community service, which I am glad about- but what a great platform to celebrate this ‘big day’- which I assume is simply made to be that- and the tradition lives on.
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They do a lot around giving back. It’s pretty impressive. They make a huge deal around “stuffing the truck” around the holidays with as much food as possible for local families. They also award kids for positive behavior in school. Neat stuff. Love to see schools encouraging the positive!
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I don’t remember ever celebrating the 100th day at school, but when I was working in a school this was happening. I think it’s kind of cool. I LOVE the acts of kindness twist on it though, what a great idea! I hope other schools will catch that too. Thanks for sharing!
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I hope so too. I’m not sure who’s idea it was, but I hope it spreads!
p.s. It’s nice to see you on the blog, Jenn! 🙂
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Jennifer
I am not really familiar with the “100 School Days” giving event. But my two daughters have been involved with charity event through our public school system since they were in the early years of grade school. I can also say it has had a major impact on them in how they view our community and their role in civics. Their appreciation for what they have and how to help others has continued to be important to them. Even though our school doesn’t have a 100 School Days program, it’s still a great idea to teach children about giving to others. Giving to charities builds character and community involvement. Great post, thank you …..
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That’s awesome to hear. I agree that giving helps build character and community involvement at a young age. The kids really embrace it. I think giving back empowers kids in a big way.
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I never did a 100 day celebration growing up, but when I worked in an elementary school in the Boston ‘burbs a few years back it was a big deal with some sort of party. I really like the idea, though, of making it about giving back to the community. As you said, children are never too young to start learning about philanthropy. Thanks for sharing!
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It seemed kind of silly to me at first, but I get it now. The giving back part is pretty fun!
What a fantastic project that your school and other elementary schools in the US have implemented. We don’t have anything like that here in Australia, but it would lovely to start it. I love the idea of encouraging children to practise random acts of kindness.
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You can never start too early, right? I’m happy to have inspired you, Lizzy!
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