Book Drive for Uganda

As a part of our commitment to Rachel’s Challenge by showing kindness to others, Moseley Elementary partnered with The Kikulu Foundation of Dallas to provide books for children in Uganda. Kikulu is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to supporting education for women and children in communities affected by poverty and oppression. The Kikulu Foundation staff is traveling to Uganda in December and is taking educational resources. Their goal is to take 280 children's books and spiral notebooks. Moseley students and staff have surpassed that goal by collecting over 430 books and 60 spiral notebooks. As a part of the book drive, the upper grade students wrote persuasive essays on why you should give books to the cause and the lower grade students discussed why we should be thankful for what we have. You can learn more about the foundation by visiting their website at http://www.kikulu.org/ or watching their short video at http://vimeo.com/77660697.

Rachel's Challenge Rally

Our district emphasizes acts of kindness among the students and staff through Rachel's Challenge. Rachel's Challenge was started by the family of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine shooting. As a part of their challenge, students recognize acts of kindness by recording them on paper chains. The paper chains are all linked together. Our district recently had a Rachel's Challenge Rally where all schools brought their chains. The football field was full of chains. It was a sight to see!

Rachel's Challenge

Our school, in an effort to reduce bullying, participates in Rachel's Challenge. If you are unfamiliar with Rachel's Challenge, I encourage you to check out their website. The students recently visited the library to watch an informational video about Rachel's Challenge and to learn about the importance of being kind. At this time they also signed a banner to show that they accept the challenge to be kind and not to bully. Each time a student was caught being kind, a paper chain link was added to our class chain. All grade levels brought the chains to our Pride Rally to show how many acts of kindness had been witnessed so far.

Earth Day Book Swap and Donation

I recently coordinated an Earth Day Book Swap for our school as a way to promote recycling and reusing what we already have. Students were asked to bring in books to trade with their friends. For each book brought in, they received a ticket which was used to "purchase" a book someone else had brought in. The students swapped almost 600 books. As a part of the Book Swap and as a part of our committment to Rachel's Challenge, the students were also asked to donate books to a local charity. With the help of one of our district's middle schools who also donated books, we collected over 750 books to donate! I am so proud of our students!