Project Helps VLO Second Graders Learn More than Economics

To culminate their recent Economics unit, Lakota VLO students banded together to learn some real-life lessons about needs and wants.

In second grade students learn about how an income, and the spending and saving of that income, can provide for needs and wants. 

During their studies, classes read Beatrice’s Goat, a story about a young girl and her family in Uganda who receive a goat from Heifer Project International. The students learned how this gift changed the family’s future by providing rich milk for their diets -- and even enough extra milk to purchase a uniform so the young girl could attend school for the first time at nine years of age. 

The students then took on their own quest to provide a goat to a family by participating in the Heifer Goat Project. Wyandot ECS teacher Lisa Sizemore has used this short-term, voluntary project for eight years to teach her students that they can make a difference in the lives of others. She encouraged her students to complete small jobs at home to earn money, saving up the money to see how many goats they could donate to needy families (one goat costs $120). Three other VLO second grade classes across the district took part in the project as well. Sizemore was surprised at how the children took to this optional project. 

“I wasn’t certain if the VLO children would see the importance of helping others as a team like my previous face-to-face classes…but they were just as eager to make a difference,” said Sizemore. Since several schools (Wyandot, Liberty and Heritage) were working together to donate to the Heifer Project, the team created a donation page and shared it in their SeeSaw lessons -- and then the money started pouring in.

The classes were able to reach an even higher goal than they intended, raising $1272 and gifting ten families with a goat. The children were very happy that they had worked together to bless so many families. What did they think about the project? Ebenezer W. summed it up well saying he felt good after helping to buy ten goats and was happy that now people can go to school.

“I just love this project as it encourages our children to take their eyes off what they ‘want’ and experience how good it can feel to meet the ‘needs’ of others,” said Sizemore.