Volunteer this Holiday Season

Welcome to the month of December teachers! Chilly mornings and festive greetings can be found wherever you go this month. Last week’s Thanksgiving feast is now in the record books and with it we’re now officially in the Season of Giving. Now is a great time to create activities that can inspire your students to volunteer this holiday season and do some good in their communities.

To help reinforce this Season of Giving, December 5^th was International Volunteer’s Day. Volunteering to help others kindles happiness (something the world can always use a bit more of.) Here are some jumping off points to get your students engaged with volunteering in their schools:

• Offering to help younger classmates with their school projects or in after school activities
• Tutoring other students
• Helping teachers prepare for classroom activities
• Volunteering their time to assist your school’s lunch aids and other staff members

Also, encourage them to find volunteering opportunities around their communities to participate in and then share them with the class. Opportunities such as:

• Food drives that can encourage students to go out shopping with their parents to help pick out the food they wish to donate
• Participating in a walking or biking charity event that can get not only the student outdoors exercising but also their families
• Donating used toys that they’d like to share with other less fortunate children and/or outgrown clothes that can be donated

Whatever we as educators can do to get our students to volunteer their time and give back this season will do nothing but benefit everyone involved. The students will gain a sense of pride and self-esteem, their parents will be proud of their child’s desire to do good and we can know that our communities will be just a little more joyful this holiday season.