Dolls For A CauseService-Learning Project

Fall 2011

Amanda BerrymanAmanda HarrisKendra Lawson

What Is Dolls For A Cause? Dolls For A Cause is a fun service-learning

project targeted towards young children. The focus of the Dolls For A Cause service-

learning project includes:– Enhancing the students’ knowledge of police and the roles

they play in the community. – Enhancing the students’ knowledge of basic shapes and

colors.– Building empathy among young children.– Getting parents involved in the school environment.

Who’s All Involved? Community members involved in this project

include:– Three-Year-Old Classroom at Madison County Head

Start– Madison County Police Department– Parents of Madison County Head Start– Amanda’s Grandmother

The Need for Dolls The idea of the Dolls For A Cause project is to

create dolls that can be placed in the police cars of several deputies throughout Madison County.

These dolls will be used when the deputy has to comfort a child in a traumatic situation.

Getting Ready! To prepare for the Dolls For A Cause project

we had to collect and make:– Cloth Dolls & Shapes– Police Car– Yarn– Fabric Glue– Eyes– Fabric Markers

Reflections Several reflections were used throughout the

project. They included:– Before Reflection

Before the project students worked with Kendra to do a Smiley Face Survey.

– During Reflection During the project students were asked about the

project and what they were enjoying about the project.– After Reflection

After the project students were asked to draw a picture of their favorite part of the project.

ReflectionsThe Smiley Face Survey served as an excellent way to get the children excited about the project and to get acquainted with each group member.

Meeting Standards Teaching Strategies GOLD are the standards

used in the Madison County Head Start program. The standards covered include:– Social-Emotional

Establishes and sustains positive relationships– Physical

Demonstrates fine-motor strength and coordination– Language

Listens to and understands increasingly complex language

– Mathematics Uses number concepts and operations Explores and describes spatial relationships and shapes

Celebration A deputy from the Madison County Police

Department will be coming to pick up the dolls this week.

We will take the children outside to the police car and bring our dolls along. The deputy will place the dolls in his car and will bring them to the police department to distribute to the deputies of Madison County.

Recognition After completing their doll, each child’s

picture was taken individually. The next day each child received a picture frame with a picture of themselves and their doll.

Publicity In order to promote the Dolls For A Cause

project we included a section about the project in the November newsletter for the class. Our hopes were to get parents involved in the classroom to help with the project.

After completing the project, we shared our work with the rest of the center and shared the meaning behind Dolls For A Cause.

Publicity Insert from November Newsletter:

Currently Ms. Amanda is finishing up her M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education at UGA. For one of her projects this semester she is doing a service-learning project. Service-learning is a fun way to incorporate children into service for the local community while connecting it to the curriculum that they learn in school. On Wednesday, November 16 we will be doing this service-learning project in our classroom. We will be making dolls to give to our

local police department. The dolls will be given to the police so they can place them in their police cars and use them when they need to comfort a child. We will be having a sign-up to help on this day coming soon! We can also give you more details if you have any questions!

 

Conclusion Changes in understanding of the

community…– The project helped us to see that young children

are capable of doing service-learning projects. Difference project made for us…

– We now have a better understanding of service-learning and the essential elements that go into making a service-learning project successful.

– We also have better understanding of three and four-year-olds and what they are capable of doing.

Conclusion Difference project made for the community…

– The project gave back to the community in a way that will help other children, perhaps even children at Madison County Head Start.

Difference project made for the students…– The project helped the students to better

understand the role of police in our society.– The project helped developed empathy among

these children and made them want to help in the community.

Questions?