Finding the Minute That Was Lost

It took minutes to obliterate and erase the lives of children and their families in South East Asia.  Naturally, one of the many questions that our students at Queen Elizabeth Elementary School asked was, “What can I do to help the victims of the tsunami?”  After that kind of selfless concern from so many small voices, everything about this project was worth it.

The staff and students got behind the project from the beginning and decided that the collection of ‘pennies’ was a powerful way to give, by the giving of the change in our pockets.  Representatives from each class met with the Principal to brainstorm ideas and how best to get the message out to the other students and the parent population.  Posters were fashioned and hung around the school.  The very next day pennies were rolling in by the jar, by the box, by the handful, and even one at a time.

A novel way to keep the students and parents up-to-date on the collection of pennies was to hang a large thermometer in the lobby of our school.  As a fun way to incorporate learning into this important lesson, students, and our dedicated Principal, met daily to count and roll pennies.  What a colossal undertaking that was!

The reward for the staff and students of Queen Elizabeth Elementary School is the knowledge that by giving the change in our pockets, this will help the children and their families of South East Asia “find the minute that was lost” on December 26, 2004.