Nicole Esra – Primary Teacher

Year 2 students have been very active in our Making a Difference project. It all started last term when we were studying Kids In The Kitchen for our Science topic. We went on an excursion to Our Big Kitchen. When we were there we met George and Shannon who chatted with us about everything they do and how they make a difference in so many people’s lives every single day. All of us felt very motivated from that point on to become involved with such an incredible organisation. We knew that an easy way for us to make a difference would be to implement our 7 habits. This is how we did it:

Being Proactive – We thought about ideas on how we could help Our Big Kitchen to continue their incredibly important work of supporting those in our community less fortunate than us. We spoke to them about coming to their kitchen to help.

Begin With The End In Mind – We decided the best way to help was to have a fundraiser for Our Big Kitchen. If we raised money, then we could donate it to help Our Big Kitchen buy things they need.

First Things First– We discussed the many different things we could do for our fundraiser and decided the best way was to have a Challah Bake Sale. We contacted Our Big Kitchen, shared our idea and made a date to go and bake challah.

Think Win Win – We knew that by having our Challah Bake Sale we would be helping Our Big Kitchen, helping those who are hungry in the community and even helping ourselves feel fantastic by knowing how much we have made a difference in so many people’s lives.

Seek First To Understand and Be Understood – We visited Our Big Kitchen in Term 2 whilst we were studying our Science topic of Kids In The Kitchen. We realised then how there are others in the community much less fortunate than us and how easy it would be to make a difference in their lives.

Synergise – We worked together with Our Big Kitchen and furiously kneaded and shaped dough to make over 200 mini challot for the sale.

Sharpen The Saw – We are now thinking of the next way that we can make a difference!

From our efforts we raised $638 for Our Big Kitchen to continue their highly-valued work.

Year 2 students were also very busy this week as we visited the Imaginarium in the Innovation Centre for five periods on Monday to make instruments with recycled materials. We began this journey by watching the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra. This video focused on a small community in Cateura, Paraguay. They live in a landfill and scrape together recyclable materials to sell to make money. They also salvage what they can to make musical instruments which sound identical to the ones you buy from a shop. Their heart and souls go into this process and it makes the world of difference to their lives. We thought about this a lot and discussed their perseverance and positive attitude in difficult circumstances. This gave us great inspiration and proved to us that you can really do anything if you put your mind to it.

Year 2 decided to collect a variety of recycled materials. We then sat down and planned how we were going to use these materials to make instruments. Our scientific brains kicked in as we discussed how each of the materials could be used to change the volume and/or pitch and help maximise the soundwaves. On Monday morning we followed our plan and some of us realised that things don’t always work out and that you have to be resilient and creative.

In the end, everyone had created a musical instrument which they were proud of. Well done to Year 2!