Students raise money for Japan

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This week, fifth graders at Shannon Park Elementary School are turning their lessons about geography and science into an opportunity to help people recovering from natural disasters in Japan.

Each year fifth graders at SPES participate in a program called mystery classes. With clues about latitude and longitude, climate and geography, the students try to pin down the locations of 10 classrooms. This year, the students identified one class in Japan and another in New Zealand, both areas affected by earthquakes and tsunamis March 11.

Now, students want to help those far-away classes. This week they’ve put out jars to collect money they’ll donate to the Red Cross.

There won’t be much formal fundraising. Anybody who wants to contribute money can do so. Teachers who want to wear jeans can contribute $1 a day for the right to dress casually.

Students are also learning something about the earthquakes and tsunami in their classes.

“The kids know from home (what happened) and we’ve seen a little of the video, because we’re also preparing for the MCA science test,” said fifth grade teacher Jane Suilman. “My kids have been talking about erosion. Weathering and erosion. The tsunami was a perfect example.”

Tags: elementary schools, news, rosemount, education