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Grade: 3-5

#4677. Exciting class project with free pizza party

Reading/Writing, level: 3-5
Posted Wed Oct 24 10:26:08 PDT 2012 by Phillip a Cameron (Phillip a Cameron).
Helmets for Hope Teachers Support
Helmets for Hope, Whitehall, PA USA
Materials Required: "Mick Harte was Here" ISBN 0-679-88203-0
Concepts Taught: Reading, Writing, Bicycle Safety, Community Service, Grief and Loss

Did you know that each year in the United States roughly 25,000 children die from Traumatic Brain Injury as a result of riding a bicycle? 85% of these accidents can be prevented by wearing a helmet.
Helmets for Hope believes this number is too high. Our mission is to reduce the occurrence of Traumatic Brain Injury in children through safety awareness education, and the distribution of free helmets.

However with over 76 Million children in the United States, we need some help getting our message across. That's why we developed this exciting class project that will allow you, the educator to help protect the lives of our children. This project is suitable for children in grades 4 - 6.

The Class Project:
Start the class off by reading the book "Mick Harte was Here". If your school is low on funding, Helmets for Hope has some copies of the book to lend. Otherwise you can purchase copies directly from Random House. To help you along, we have found a very good teacher's guide from the California Department of Health and Safety. (available for download at http://www.helmetsforhope.com/schools/)
After you read the story, as a class have the children write letters to parents, aunts, uncles, even local chamber of commerce members, asking them to help Helmets for Hope raise awareness, and give bicycle helmets to the children who can't afford them. Once your class is able to average 2 helmets sponsored by each student, we will pay for a pizza party for the class.

We suggest that you have the children write one letter a week until the class as a whole makes their goal. We recommend a complete writing process as homework. Have the children submit a rough draft Tuesday, send it back home Wednesday with the final copy due on Friday.

Helmets for Hope will create a special online portal to send them to, which will allow them to donate online, or purchase gift cards that will help support our cause. This portal will be updated as we add new ways people can help. This portal allows us to track the number of helmets sponsored by your class's activities.