Christmas Cheer with The Giving Tree

I love this time of year. For the past twenty years my class has provided clothing and toys for needy children in the school community through a project called "The Giving Tree." One of my gifted students each year coordinates the project. This year we helped 26 families and about 70 children. We put tags on trees at the neighborhood bank and grocery store. Members of the community take the tags, buy gifts, wrap them, and return them to us. My classroom is festive as the gifts start coming in.


Over 300 gifts were processed this year!

Once we have them all collected, the special needs students in our Life Skills class sort the gifts by family number. They also help wrap any that come in unwrapped. They are great helpers!

Katie, this year's coordinator, gives a gift to John who will take it to the hallway and place it under the number that matches that family. Each gift will have the child's first name put on it.

Then we bag the gifts by family and the Lions Club Santas deliver them for us along with a food basket made up of meat and the canned food items the Student Council collects. It is truly a community-wide project.