I created these cute little turkeys to keep track of the amount of food donated by each class:
Each day I walked around the school with my little two and collected cans and boxes of food. I have a class list that I keep track how many I count and then I would color in the turkey feathers. The classes loved to come out at last recess and see how full their turkeys were. Here's the problem, the classes responded to the prize of meeting Chester the Cheetah. This is great for the food bank and community, terrible for me. I was out there for an hour, coloring in each feather in the freezing cold! Each feather was equal to 8 cans. After awhile (2 days), I gave up and just posted the totals on a piece of paper across each turkey.
Our school was extremely generous. Our 1/2 day Kindergarten brought in 500 items! Overall, over 3000 items were collected. I was very proud of every student in our school. We collected items for 4 days and the Frito-Lay people came to collect all the items on Monday.
We broke the prizes into 3 grade levels, K-2, 3-4 and 5-6. Grades K-2 and 3-4 won a visit from Chester the Cheetah. 5-6 weren't very interested in spending time with Chester, so I provided the winning class with ice cream sandwiches.
Chester the Cheetah arrived on a Friday and went to our school's gym (less obtrusive for the school). My hope was that he could go to each room and say "Hi", but the costume is hot and the kids were aggressive. The Kindergarten class was great. We had very excited kids (including my little two that I got to bring with) and one little girl who cried because "he isn't real. It's a costume." The third graders (my sons class) were a little more aggressive and were hugging and hitting. We finally had to put food and drinks in their hands so that they would keep their hands to themselves and we were able to get class photos and individual photos for the kids (and our yearbook).
It was a fun afternoon. Here's a photo of Miss R and Mr N with Chester the Cheetah.
