Smallwood Drive Elementary Community Day Caps off “See the Good, Be the Good, Spread the Good” Character Program

Smallwood Drive helds its culminating activity to cap off the school's year-long character initiative named “See the Good, Be the Good, Spread the Good”. A major focus of this year’s initiative is the intentional integration of service learning. Through a structured model, students engage in projects connected to real community needs, with a focus on supporting community helpers such as nurses, first responders, service workers, and local organizations.

The “See the Good, Be the Good, Spread the Good” character building initiative helped earn the school its 7th Promising Practice award from character.org. The schoolwide theme connects character development to authentic service learning.

The Community Day featured activities for each grade level that met a real community need. The prekindergarten students created notes for the school cafeteria staff and learned about food systems. Kindergarten students collected blankets for the SPCA. They integrated a math lesson into the collection efforts and counted the total collected by groups of 10 - the final number was 349.

First graders had a zoom call with Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve where students could ask questions. Second graders made no sew fleece blankets for dog and cat rescue organizations. Third-graders made cards of thanks, informative posters and videotaped public service announcements that will play on morning announcements. Fourth graders supported the Brothers of Mercy and fifth-grade focused on food insecurity and community food drives.