Highlands Elementary believes students can make a difference in the community.

With the help of an Idaho State Department of Education Learn and Serve Grant, Highlands Elementary students learn while being active citizens. Teachers and parents work together during the school year to teach some portion of the school curriculum through active community involvement.

The goals of service learning at Highlands Elementary are:

• To have a program at Highlands Elementary where students have the opportunity and are encouraged to become active citizens in the community.
• To develop students' civic and leadership skills with a theme of "Kids for Kids".
• To build student values of respect, dignity, honesty, responsibility, and teamwork.
• To maintain academic achievement as an active student body in the community.

Projects From 2009-2010

6^th Grade, Mr. Franz (Vera Rasmussen) - Mr. Franz's class created new friendships with refugees from Lowell Elementary.  Understanding refugees opens the minds of our students and creates compassion and acceptance of people different from us.  We met with our new friends 4 times this year with various activities planned such as sharing our American Thanksgiving traditions, sharing Olympic games, learning a few words in other languages, and last, learning a little about Idaho  by touring the state capital.

5^th/6^th Grade, Mrs. Jungen (Gail Eberle) – Accomplishments include:

Letters to the military troops over in Iraq and Afghanistan at Christmas;

Each student made picture note cards which the class sold around the holidays with the proceeds going to a charity and animala cause (TBD);

Donated $50.00 to House of Hunger at Thanksgiving - enough to feed four families - through 103.3 Kiss FM;

The class is faithfully working on the garden and keeping their school beautiful and water-wise;

They have one more sale to plan in hopes of earning more money for their causes and garden before the year is up - date of sale TBD.

5^th/6^th Grade, Mrs. Orler (Rosalie Sisson & Connie Simpson) - Mrs. Orler’s 5/6 class has enjoyed getting together with their New American buddies (1st – 3rd graders) from Lowell.  Our Lowell buddies are newly-arrived refugees and immigrants from all over the world (African countries, Mexico, Bhutan, Nepal, Iraq & Afganistan) We have had the following field trips that were designed to have fun and make new friends:

We went to meet our buddies at their school then went to the zoo for play and animal adventures;

We went to our buddies' school gym to play games and do craft activities together through a series of stations, planned and led by the Highlands students (e.g., obstacle course, bowling, parachute, limbo, ball games and various crafts);

Our buddies came to highlands to celebrate our year of friendship - to see our school, play on the playground and take a nearby hike in the foothills.

5^th Grade, Mr. Decker (Nicole Mitchell) - Mr. Decker's class focused on the effects of being homeless. They spent a morning playing with kids of homeless & low-income families at a daycare downtown.  They also organized a canned food drive.

4^th Grade, Mrs. Nydegger (Jenny Kuykendoll) - Mrs. Nydegger's class is creating a fun and educational brochure to be used by school children and families that visit the newly renovated Idaho State Capitol. It includes a scavenger hunt, word search, and fun facts about the Capitol.

3^rd/4^th Grade, Mrs. Andrus (Casey Wechsler) - Mrs. Andrus’ class is working with Adam at Crane Creek to help increase the numbers of the songbird population.  

3^rd/4^th Grade, Mrs. Adams (Jodi Lewerenz) - Mrs. Adams’ class project revolved around sports helmet safety.  The students had a presentation from a helmet expert about the proper adjustment and fitting of helmets, so if you have any questions about your bike helmet, grab one of Mrs. Adams’ students!  They also discussed several other plans for increasing the community’s awareness of helmet safety.

3^rd Grade, Ms. Coles (Kimberly Maloney) - This fall, the YMCA and ACHD presented a safety seminar to Highlands Elementary.  While we learned a lot, we thought they could use better visual aids for their presentation.  The students photographed various safety scenes and are incorporating those into the Power Point presentation for the YMCA and ACHD’s future use.   <>

2^nd Grade, Mrs. Hays and Mrs. Jenne (Jody Orr & Leslie Scantling) - Last year's second grade classes left behind something for the incoming 2nd graders --a garden planted with pumpkins seeds! This year's class harvested the pumpkins and then made pies to donate to the City Light Home for Women and Children, a local shelter.  In February, the classes turned over and composted the soil, preparing it for planting in March.  If all goes as planned, they'll harvest spinach, lettuce, carrots, peas, and radishes in May.  They plan to donate the harvest to one of the shelters or possibly Life's Kitchen.

1st Grade, Mrs. Ozuna (Suzie Harsh) - Mrs. Ozuna's class had a visit from a teacher at the Learning Lab, a family literacy school.  We then launched a book drive for their preschool program where the books help teach both preschoolers and their parents to read.   The Learning Lab staff will be coming to collect the books and explain to the kids how useful the books will be and how they will be used. The kids enjoyed the idea of donating books that they could now read so easily, to other children who could now have the book in their home.

1st Grade, Ms. Griffitts (Laura O’Melia) - As in previous years, we formed a pen-pal relationship with seniors . . . in this case, our own grandparents.  The students enjoyed writing letters and communicating via the good old fashioned US Postal Service.  Word from the parents is that the grandparents enjoyed this new bond, also.  The kids learned that giving to the people we normally receive from can be really fun!