Ask Me About Thursday, January 14, 2016

Today we had a visit from our Staff Development Teacher, Mrs. Taylor.  I had seen on her Facebook that her grandson has come up with a project to help children in orphanages around the world, so I asked her to come talk about it with our children.  In some countries, it's difficult for the orphanages to get the funding necessary for the needs of all the children.  Mrs. Taylor's grandson was told by his dentist that a big problem for many of the orphanages was to have enough toothbrushes for each child.  Many of the children actually share toothbrushes.  Here's the video:

Here's an opportunity for children to learn they can help make a difference in the lives of others who may not be as fortunate as they are.  For the price of a toothbrush, your child can help another child in another part of the world by buying them a toothbrush.  This is a good opportunity to continue talking with your child about helping others, and the cost of an adult toothbrush is cheap enough that many of our children could buy one with money from their own piggy bank.  I'm guessing dollar stores would have toothbrushes and might be a great place to go on a kindergartener's budget!  We talked about how many families spend money for their needs, save money for the future, spend some money for fun things, and try to give some to others who need some help to live a healthy life.  

To participate, all the children have to do is purchase an ADULT size toothbrush and bring it to our classroom.  We will be writing a letter to Drew to let him know we think his idea is great and hope he collects a lot of toothbrushes!  Mrs. Taylor and I will see that her grandson gets the toothbrushes, and his father will help him send them on to Global Dental Relief.   For more information about this group, go to:   http://globaldentalrelief.org/  

Just a heads up...in our discussion of orphanages, the children wanted to know why the children didn't have parents.  We talked about how some parents couldn't take care of their children because they were living in an area where people needed some extra help because of a war or diseases, and that some of the parents died.  I reassured them that where we live, this is not happening.  They are good thinkers and ask a lot of questions!  One child made a connection to a story we read earlier in the year called Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed, by Emily Pearson.

Thanks for your consideration of this unique opportunity for children to help other children!
Have a great evening!
​Juliet

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