Due to so many students at Kathryn Winn Primary being unkind to others, a leadership club was implemented where these students will focus on “Be Kind” and the Leadership students will discuss some activities to show kindness.  The leadership club students have engaged all students in writing thank you notes to their bus drivers, and have discussed how important bus drivers are for the school system. The club focused on different organizations that do so much for our community and how they would like to thank them.  They chose the police department first to receive a thank you from the club.  They wrote thank you notes and made a wood state of Kentucky magnet for each employee in the Carroll County City Police office and for the Carroll County Sheriff’s office employees.  A policeman from each office came and the children told them how much they appreciated them and presented each officer with an envelop containing the magnets to give to their employees.  Then the officers talked about their job and responsibilities (career lesson).

The next lesson was on natural resources and taking care of our land and animals.  We have a great environmental facility in Carroll County (it used to be the Easter Seals campground—called Camp Kysoc) and now serves as a great environmental classroom.  They zoomed in on birds and how they would like to feed the birds.  The students wanted to make their own bird feeders and present them to Gail Becraft, the manager of Camp Kysoc.  I ordered bird feeder kits and asked five adult volunteers to go with me and help the students put the kits together.  They learned how to use a screwdriver, follow directions and complete the task of building a bird feeder  (a great lifeskill). Gail Becraft and Patrick Underwood (environmental manger of the camp) came and accepted the bird feeders and took them back to Camp Kysoc where they placed them throughout the camp grounds.  Each child wrote their name on the bird feeder and was excited to go home and to ask their parents to take them to the grounds to show them their project.

This project started by a mere discussion and then went on to the intermediate state where they actually made the bird feeder and now the feeders will serve as a long-term project at the facility.  Two of the families have already visited the facility.  4-H will be doing an Earth day lesson on April 12 where 150 students will attend and get to see the bird feeders and this summer I will be presenting an 8 day STEM camp.  These feeders are very visible and will be enjoyed by our community for a long time to come.