Whiz Kids: Circle Center Grade School Raises Money for Food Pantry

Whiz Kid's Name/Age: Circle Center kindergarten students

Whiz Kid's School:  Circle Center Grade School

Whiz Kid's Accomplishment: Beginning in January, Ashley Pontarelli’s morning and afternoon kindergarten students started accepting donations of new or gently used children’s books.  This week all Circle Center students were able to purchase books for a quarter or a can of food.  All proceeds from the book sale will benefit the .

Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness:  This service project has inspired all the kindergartners to think of others and be generous. 

“What is the food pantry?” asked their teacher. 

“It’s a place where people go to get food if they don’t have money to get food,” Courtney answered.   

“The money and food is for the people who aren’t as lucky as us,” replied another.

Many of the children were even generously sharing quarters with classmates who had not brought money for the sale. 

“I have seven quarters and she has none. Can I give her two?” one student asked his teacher. 

Monday the kindergarten students were shopping for themselves as well as for siblings.  As a part of their strong commitment to literacy the staff has encouraged the young readers to find books that are a “good fit”. 

When I asked the kids to tell me about a "good fit" book, Emma told me: “It’s a book you can read to yourself!”  While Steve looked for a Spiderman book, Maggie showed me a book about cats and another about time.

“My sister is teaching me how to tell time so I bought this for her to read to me,” Maggie said.  

Emma proudly displayed the 10 books she was able to buy with her two dollar bills and two quarters. 

These Whiz Kids have combined math, literacy, and Character Counts to demonstrate how truly awesome even our youngest students can be! Bravo kindergarten!