Featured News - May 2007
Walking on Sunshine
[featured 5/23/07 - 6/1/07]
“No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.”
-Emma Goldman
The Walking on Sunshine program engages children in doing positive things in the community.
Among activities for the program, King students gave flowers at a local Wal-Mart, handed out happy face stickers to people at the Illinois Union and delivered handmade flowers to a nursing home. The program wraps up the last week of May with an assembly at King.
In today’s classroom, loneliness, apprehension and instability can often cause students to act in ways that are not reflective of whom they truly are. Bullying, racism, put-downs and violence among our youth have become a legitimate national concern, which increases with each passing school year.
This project uses a technology base to teach empathy and mutual respect for one another, while at the same time striving to empower children with the understanding that they can make a positive difference in the world around them.
WALKING ON SUNSHINE: PART ONE
Student-driven projects will be designed in several King Elementary School classrooms, which center on performing random acts of kindness in the local area of Champaign/Urbana. Several excellent children’s books centering on themes of random acts of kindness will serve as an inspiring beginning to the project. Students will be given the opportunity to become better writers by capturing their extraordinary moment on paper. Every classroom performing an extraordinary deed will employ various technologies, which have been customized to best match student plans.
WALKING ON SUNSHINE: PART TWO
The project will then break though traditional classroom walls and plant student visions/thoughts and actions online via an interactive blog, at www.cusunshine.com.
In turn, students will transform the nature of the Internet into a tool that can be used school wide, providing ample expansion room to include any supportive resources/experts and positive community interactions. Digital bridges and connected classrooms will play a vital role in reminding students of the positive differences their extraordinary deeds have made.
Learn more about the program and read comments from the children and community at www.cusunshine.com
"Insect Museum" at King
[featured 5/15/07 - 5/23/07]
The 4th and 5th grade English as a Second Language class at Martin Luther King Elementary, 1108 W. Fairview, will present a "hands-on" Museum on Insects. Students from other classes will be given 40-minute tours about the insects' world using the activities created by the class.
The Insect Museum will be open to student tours on May 15, May 16 and May 21.
UMS Musical - Annie, Jr.
[featured 5/2/07 - 5/15/07]
Come to the 2nd annual Urbana Middle School musical, Annie, Jr., on Thurs., May 10 at 7 p.m. and Sat., May 12 at 3 p.m. at the UMS cafetorium. Buy tickets at the door. $5 for adults and $3 for students. Doors open 30 minutes before the show. Students must be accompanied by an adult. The musical is sponsored by the SPLASH Afterschool Program and directed by Bethany Shapland, Adam Schmitt and Jacinda Crawmer.