Kids Paying It Forward
 

Hall's Cross Elementary School
Aberdeen, MD
Jackie McDonald's fourth grade class chose a reading project to embody the pay it forward spirit. Students from this class each picked a Dr. Seuss book, buddied up with a first grader, and practiced their oral reading skills. Then with the help of an Instructional Assistant, each student made a recording of his or her book on tape. The books on tape were then donated to families, primary grade classes, and libraries that could benefit from samples of fluent reading. Thank you to Ms. McDonald's and her class for their Pay it Forward contribution!
Read More Jackie McDonald of Hall's Cross Elementary >>>
Read Letters from Hall Cross Students >>>

Roosevelt Elementary
Park Ridge, Illinois

The Non-Academic Goal Committee will use the pay it forward theme as part of their school wide Respect and Responsibility program. Their committee has made Pay it Forward kites for all of the classrooms and many of the special areas (PE, Art, Music, Spanish, Library, Social Worker, etc.). Each kite has the words "Pay it Forward" on it and each triangle on the tail has a student's name on it. As the students "pay it forward" to others, they write the good deed and the other child's mane on one side of their triangle. Students will write about their project as a curriculum tie-in.

Unitah Elementary School
Salt Lake City, UT
On the last Friday of each month, this third grade class visits "Our House," a day-care center for disadvantaged youth, and throws a birthday party with presents and treats for each of the children who had a birthday that month. Pay it Forward provided the funds for the presents.

Havre de Grace Elementary
Havre de Grace, MD
Third grade students at this school are setting up a recycling program in their school and then taking it out into the community. Pay it Forward provided the funds to set up the program with recycling bins. This project ties into their environmental curriculum.

Jim C. Bailey Middle School
Pensacola, Florida
Deana Mobley and 153 seventh grade students from this school implemented the pay it forward idea by writing special books for people. Their books contained creatively written and illustrated personal stories, were adorned with ornate covers and included a dedication page for the reciepient. A special "Pay it Forward" page at the end of the book explained the concept and asked the reciepient to "Pay it Forward" to three other people. The students then bundled their books into decorated gift bags and distributed them as Christmas presents.

Roy W. Loudon Elementary School
Bakersfield, California
Floyd Martin's combination 5th and 6th grade class invited Catherine Ryan Hyde to visit their school to discuss the writing of her novel, Pay It Forward, and talk about various ways they can create their own pay it forward projects. One idea the children had was to increase awareness of the need for more pet adoptions. The visit was simultaneously broadcast to the rest of the school on closed circuit cable TV. The local CBS affiliate, KBAK, interviewed some of the students, who then appeared on the evening news.

Tamalpais High School
Mill Valley, California

David Tarpinian's freshman English students read Pay It Forward and in conjunction with their social studies class wrote essays and discussed their ideas for paying it forward. The novel is currently before the school board for inclusion in the English curriculum.

Advent Day School
Birmingham, Alabama

These primary school students wrote to the author with their ideas for paying it forward.

James H. Vernon School
East Norwich, New York

Mr. Siegelman's third grade class wrote letters to the author depicting their ideas, and enacted a national letter-writing campaign to influential educators and legislators promoting the pay it forward concept.

Santa Barbara Community Foundation
Santa Barbara, California

This foundation has invited all Santa Barbara County schools (K-8) to develop their own pay it forward projects. The first fifteen schools to respond will be awarded a cash endowment.

Main School
Santa Barbara, CA
Santa Barbara Community Foundation

Leslie Gravitz's fourth grade class received one of the fifteen $1000 grants that are part of the Care-and-Share program sponsored by the Santa Barbara Community Foundation. Gravitz's class used its grant to pair up with Carpinteria Senior Citizens Inc. on a joint poetry project called "Bridging the Generations Through Poetry". Students and seniors met at a get acquainted tea and then paired up to work on different poetry projects. Perie Longo, poet and longtime participant in the California Poetry in the Schools program, led the groups in a session of writing poetry collectively. They choose three themes: If You Walked Into My Heart; What Matters and Old Things; and Remembrance. Gravitz and a corps of volunteers typed the final poems, gathered photos from the sessions and put the results on laminated posters, which are displayed in the storefront windows of Carpinteria businesses. In May the students will put their poems into books. At a farewell tea the students will read the poetry with their writing partners.

 
 

 

 
   

 

Authore Web site Pay It Forward Foundation