Building Community with Parents
Selfless Minutes (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 1: Beginning LiteracyStage 2: Consolidation / Fluency
Stage 3: Literacy for Growth
Ages:
6-10
Grade Range:
1st 2nd 3rd 4thFood Groups:
Primary: Oral Language, Writing Processes & Strategies Secondary: Motivation for Literacy
Transcript
When students aren't asked to complete a Math is Fun activity or their Reading Log, I ask them to do twenty Selfless Minutes. This is something that we talked about at the beginning of the year, and it was something that actually came up when we were reading the book Iqbal. We talked about what it meant to give your time to someone else in order to lend a helping hand. Students are asked during those weeks to donate 20 minutes to someone in their home. Whether it be helping with a younger sibling, with bed time, or clearing up after dinner, washing dishes, anything they could do to help out around the home. It's great to talk about what they were doing in the evenings because other students started to learn about what they could potentially do within their own homes. I either ask students to verbally share their twenty Selfless Minutes with the rest of the class, or, from time to time, I ask them to write down their work in their journal to explain how their contribution helped out within the home that evening.
Related References
Activity Objective
The goal of Building Community with Parents: Selfless Minutes is for students to donate time to help around the house to build oral communication and reflection. Students verbally share their twenty Selfless Minutes with the class and also write about their contributions in their journals. This provides students with opportunities to learn from each other how they might help in their own homes.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- For older students, you can ask them to engage more with the school community rather than just at home. - At the end of the year, you can ask students to share their favorite Selfless Minutes time either as a presentation or a written report. - Think about asking students to interview the people they are helping so they can get feedback about the impact they're making.
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