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Just before winter break, Far Hills Country Day School's Grade 2 students worked on a service-learning project to benefit Tabby's Place: A Cat Sanctuary in Ringoes, NJ. Service-learning opportunities enable students to connect directly with local community organizations and to help others in need, even "fur babies."
Far Hills Grade 2 teacher Susan Miller is a long-time volunteer at Tabby's Place. She shared that roughly 30% of the cats at Tabby's Place are special needs cats.
"This goes so nicely with our Grade 2 curriculum focus on empathy," said Ms. Miller. "We spend the whole year learning to empathize through many areas of our curriculum, such as our unit on the Civil Rights Movement and also our capstone Immigration Project. Empathizing with animals is such a natural gateway into this big topic for children."
For the project, students made several different types of cat toys to donate to Tabby's Place.
Stations were set up around one of the Grade 2 classrooms.
Students took turns at each station.
They worked collaboratively, too!
They worked hard.
And made it look easy!
In the end, there were many cat houses and toys for the cats at Tabby's Place to enjoy!
The students loved making items for the cats. But what they really loved was a classroom visit from a Tabby's Place cat!
The visit was part of Tabby's Place's outreach program. They have several cats who are long-time residents and certified therapy cats. They usually visit nursing homes and senior centers. However, Ms. Miller was able to make special arrangements for Alice (the cat) to visit with our Grade 2 students.
Alice is a special needs cat who has a spinal cord injury that left her requiring special care that not every home can provide.
Our students showered her with love...and she returned the favor.
The students completed this service-learning project by writing personalized holiday cards to different cats at Tabby's Place.
Well done, Grade 2 students! We're so proud of the work you did on your service-learning project.