Students bake some love for Australia

Jan. 28, 2020

By Kristena Schutt-Moore

Earlier this month the Grade 2/3 students at Maynooth Public School had been participating in a social studies class when a discussion about Australia and the fires happening there started.
The students showed a great interest and empathy in what was happening to the animals, land and people there so their teachers decided to collect some facts about what was happening including the number of burnt houses, how the fires are affecting the animals and people and the environment. After doing the research the students thought it would be nice to write letters of support to the firefighters working to put the fires out and to keep them from spreading. 
Once they completed the letters the class thought about sending a gift with the letters and decided to raise funds to help with the Red Cross efforts. They quickly got to work and planned a bake sale for their school.
On Friday, Jan. 17, right before the first recess/nutrition break the Grade 2/3 students turned their classroom into a sweets shop and invited the other classes to come and shop. Goodies from cake-pops to cookies lined the shopping aisles that the students had created with their desks. 
This was a student-led project and their teachers were surprised just how they got more involved with the world around them, by doing things like asking to listen to the news and taking time out of their day to research things for the event themselves. One of the students, Breadon, came into school the day of the sale excitedly yelling, “It's raining in Australia! It's raining in Australia!” which is what he had heard on the news the night before. The response to his announcement on the weather change was cheering and clapping from the other students and it made them more determined to help both the human and animal fire victims.
The sale was a great success with $405.50 being raised for the Red Cross relief programs in Australia which will be sent with the letters for the firefighters next week. The students and teachers want to thank all the parents and volunteers who made items for the sale and those who came to purchase the baked goods as well.