We have now completed the final chapter of our ongoing Food Bank saga.  When last we met our amazing Appaloosa Rabbits had prepared some of Missoula's best organic applesauce, packaged and labeled it.  Next they moved on to the marketing phase, working together to design eye-catching signage and locating an appropriate sales site.  The compilation of the signs required the individual talents and skills of each student to produce a uniquely original composition.  In other words each child wrote at least two letters for the APPLESAUCE SALE TODAY! portion of the sign and created a colorful and appealing apple (no pun intended - although it is rather tempting...) design of their own.  This was great practice in both letter recognition and formation. Then the sale was on and it was a great success!  Thanks to your support and generosity we raised a little over $140.00.  It was fun to see how excited the children were to bring home a sample of their finished product and share it with their family.  While a large part of our project was complete we weren't done yet.  Now it was time to buy some food which we thought the families at the Food Bank would enjoy with some of the money we raised.  We made grocery lists with each child suggesting an item they wanted to donate (the criteria was that the food item had to be nonperishable and not extremely expensive).  There were many good thoughts and ideas generated by asking the question "What kind of food do you think the people who visit the Food Bank would like to take home?  What do you think kids would like?".  (You will be proud to know that many of the suggested food items were very healthy choices.)  Once our lists were complete and the groceries were purchased they were "bagged up" by the group.  This was good practice in memory recall and letter matching - most of us were able to identify the food item we added to our grocery list without assistance. (*We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank those of you who donated extra food items in addition to ours; altogether we donated over 70 lbs. of food).  

   Finally came the the last (and most important) part of our project, namely the BIG ADVENTURE  (aka our scheduled Field Trip to the Food Bank to deliver food and money).  We were excited to take our first bus ride of the year (and, for some of us, our very first bus ride ever!).  But first we learned about Bus Ettiquette so we could stay safe while on the bus and so the bus driver could concentrate on his job.  We learned to board the bus quciky and to sit as far back in our seats as we could with our legs out straight AND that our #3 voice (the outside voice) was way too loud for the bus driver's ears.  We also learned that only teachers and adults were allowed to pull on the yellow cord to request a stop (oops!).  We discovered how important it is to stay with our partner in our Safety Sandwich, especially when transfering from one bus to another (all our practicing really paid off) which we needed to do twice.  Once off the bus it was a short walk to the Food Bank where we greeted by a staff member who had planned a tour for us.  During our tour we found that the Food Bank resembles a grocery store much like the ones we shop at with our moms and dads (complete with carts!) and that the people who visit the Food Bank are also much like the people we see at a typical grocery store. There were many volunteers (all ages from college to seniors) whose job it was to keep the shelves stocked (similar to a grocery store) as well as  a number of large coolers and freezers and lots of shelves (it may not look like it from the outside but that place is HUGE!).  One of our most favorite parts of the tour was standing on the huge floor scale to find out how much we weighed as a group. With everybody on the scale, including the grown-up kids, we  weighed over  1200 pounds - whoa!  We enjoyed having some of us step off the scale and then back on again so we could watch the numbers fluctuate - talk about large addition and subtraction problems...  Our proudest moment came when we were able to give (collectively) $100.00 to the Food Bank to use where the need was the greatest along with all our food donations.  There is a good feeling which comes along with a job well done and knowing that we are able to help others.

   We learned so much while involved with this project.  Along with numerous academic skills we practiced turn taking, sharing, cooperating and working together.  We found that being a part of a group working together is also great fun!   We were able to experience what it is like to be a part of a community - first at school and then as a part of the larger Missoula community.  We are now a bit more aware of the many things for which we can be thankful.  Most important of all we found we can take a lot of pride in ourselves. 

   Did you know..

*in an average day the Food Bank provides food for 50 families; some days it can be as many as 65

*last year the Food Bank served about 15,000 families - this number includes over 3,000 children

*Missoula stores contribute food to the Food Bank along with produce grown by Missoula area Community Gardens

    As always we send a big thank you to all our parent helpers, both in and out of the classroom.  You help make our Preschool Program rock!