By Mrs Sander’s 4/5 class
In week 2 of this term, Mrs Sander’s class hosted a Cake & Cookie Sale in conjunction with an Odd Socks/Odd Shoes Day to raise funds for three charities: Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Mercy Ships, and The Royal Flying Doctors.
Doctors Without Borders is an organisation which has medical teams in conflict areas around the world, where people may be experiencing war, disease and famine.
Mercy Ships is, as the name suggests, a service run on board ships which dock at ports in countries where the people are desperately poor and are unable to afford medical treatment for debilitating tumours, rickets and a range of very serious conditions.
In total we raised just under $780 which allowed us to send $260 to each charity.
In week 5 of this term Mrs Sander’s and Miss Nicole’s classes, representing the French Choir of Port Noarlunga Primary School, sang at the opening of the Colonnades K Mart Wishing Tree. The Colonnades branch is the most successful in the state for sponsoring Christmas gifts to children who would otherwise have nothing.
Learning opportunities
- Our Young Leaders prepared an assembly presentation, which highlighted our sponsored charities and their worthwhile efforts.
- Pairs of students distributed posters and provided information about the Cake and Cookie Sale. As a literacy task, the class brainstormed how we could persuade people to donate and what information would be needed.
- Students practised adding totals and calculating change. Groups of students determined what price to charge for certain items in order to maximise our profits and at the same time, to avoid overcharging. These tasks align with Maths and Economics (a year 5 subject).
- Students gave up their recess or lunch (some students gave up both) to sell the items.
- We worked with our buddy class – Nicole Bracken’s – to learn a variety of songs in French and English.
- Madame Thorburn also taught each class a song in French, which increased their pronunciation skills and vocabulary.
- The class focus for each event was about caring and giving to the community, which reflects our school values and which involved students working collaboratively towards a united goal.
Here is what students said:
‘People were working together. I felt like I was in a team.’
‘It helped develop our social skills and it was a nice feeling helping people.’
‘It was hard performing in front of people but I felt it was an important thing to do.’
‘It was a good, practical experience selling items and making people happy by performing for them.’
I really liked the idea of helping out the charities. It felt like I was doing something worthwhile.’
‘The sale was a really good opportunity to use money better and students could show the community when we did both things that they care about others.’
