Gaines Elementary School's Sewing Program is a service learning program for fourth and fifth graders. Gaines, located in Clarke County, Georgia, considers service learning to be a part of a complete education. The program provides outside opportunities that may not be readily available to the students of Clarke County.
We had a sleep over at Gains Elementary School for our fourth and fifth grade girls and their friends. They participated in lots of fun activities. the activities included a hula hoop and jacks competition, pig races, fingernails painting, sock hop and a runway fashion show. The girls also made small purses that they were able to take home with them. There were a lot of wonderful volunteers from the Fashion Design Student Association at UGA and from Alpha Phi Omega. We had a blast!
One of the advisers, Mrs. Bland, found a Jack Fruit at a Market in Atlanta, Ga. The Girls were then able to see, touch, smell and taste the sweet fruit that their pen pals from Africa talked about in their DVD that was sent to the club. The girls really enjoyed this experience.
We started the year by allowing the students to become familiar with their sewing machines. We then helped the girls make backpacks. They created backpacks for themselves and for their pen pals in Africa. Each student was assigned another girl from Uganda as a pen pal. They have also been making pillow cases for the homeless shelters.
