6th Grade Enrichment Projects

(This update was provided by the 6th Grade Enrichment teachers, Ms. Emenecker and Ms. Cammarato.)

Some community members may have already heard about the dynamic efforts going on with our 6th Grade Enrichment. The class recently worked on a unit about poverty. As a way of wrapping up the unit our students broke out into four groups. Each group was to create and implement an activity to help people living in poverty.



The first group planned an activity where they made food for the homeless. This was made possible due to the incredible work of Bob and JoAnn Miller. The Miller family assists Diane Bradley with running a program called The Camden Lunch Mission out of the Central Baptist Church. Volunteers meet on Saturday mornings at the church and then proceed to Camden to hand out 100 lunches consisting of 2 sandwiches, cookies, a piece of fruit, and a bottle of water directly to homeless men and women. Many organizations that provide food Monday through Friday are closed on the weekends, which is what sparked the idea for this mission. Their "regulars" know they can rely on The Saturday Lunch Group for a meal every week. Mrs. Chandler's class, from our high school, with the help of Bob Miller, joins The Camden Lunch Mission on the 3rd Friday of each month. The students prepare food for the lunches that are packed on Saturday mornings. On Friday, April 17 the 6th grade Enrichment class joined Mrs. Chandler’s class in making 100 lunches which were refrigerated and given out in Camden on Saturday. Some of the comments the students made while reflecting on the experience were:
“I really liked making sandwiches because it was a team effort. I want to help more often.” “I learned that helping people makes me feel better about myself.” “I learned that helping other people is a good thing to do and fun and made me think of people differently.” “Because of this experience I learned about how just by giving food to people who need it can possibly change their lives.”



Our second group chose to plan a bake sale after school which was held on Wednesday, April 22nd. The students created signs promoting the bake sale and hung them throughout the building as well as distributed them to homeroom teachers. Each student from the Enrichment class along with some Jr. High teachers brought in baked goods that were individually packaged to be sold after school. There was a huge assortment of food which included chocolate dipped pretzels, cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and slices of cake. We are thrilled to announce that this group raised $170 which was then donated to The South Jersey Food Bank.




The third group from the class decided that they wanted to get the entire Jr. High in on the action. They came up with the idea of having a coin drive which they titled “Pennies for Poverty.” In this activity J. High homerooms competed against each other to see who could have the most pennies in their jar by the end of the week. The catch was that money other than pennies would be subtracted from the homerooms total number of pennies. Therefore, throughout the day the homeroom teacher’s other classes would come through and throw silver coins in the jars to subtract from that homerooms total number of pennies. At the end of the week the winning homerooms were Mrs. Rogers, 6th grade, with 2,516 pennies, Mrs. Stanfill, 7th grade, with 2,864 pennies and Mr. Blumenthal, 8th grade, with 2,239 pennies. We are blown away to announce that this activity raised a total of $700 which they have chosen to donate to The Camden Lunch Mission. The 6th grade Enrichment class was inspired by their experience on April 17th with Bob and JoAnn Miller and Mrs. Chandler’s class and they wanted to continue to help support this program which relies solely on donations of food, money, and time. JoAnn Miller told the 6th grade Enrichment teachers that, “Bob and I work with the high school children because we believe it's important for children to feel a sense of community and involvement. Besides learning some important life skills, we hope the students will come to realize they have the ability to change the world through simple actions. Making soup and sandwiches for the less fortunate brings a tremendous amount of hope to everyone involved. It's not a solution to homelessness, but it's a compassionate response.”




Our fourth and final group has decided to have a restaurant night. Thanks to the support of Di Scotto Pizza on Broad Street will be holding their activity on Thursday, May 28th. Di Scotto Pizza has agreed to donate 15% of the profit from our supporters to our 6th Grade Enrichment cause. Our students have decided they would like to donate the money to Mother/Child Residential Program located on Broad Street in Woodbury. The Mother/Child Residential Program provides emergency shelter and transitional housing for pregnant women and women with children as well as counseling services and educational support. The 6th grade Enrichment class would like to invite you and your family to come out and support their endeavor to make a difference. Bring your family and friends to Di Scotto Pizza on Broad Street anytime after 4:00 p.m. and let them know that you are there to support the Woodbury Jr. High’s 6th Grade Enrichment class. Fifteen percent of your check will be donated. We thank you in advance for your support and for helping to make a difference in the fight against poverty!