Compassion-in-action lives at Birch Hill Elementary School.

“Birch Hill Elementary School students are engaged in meaningful service projects this year, providing them the opportunity to become active members of our community that will have a lasting, positive impact on society at large,” said Tanya Ackerman, Principal at Birch Hill Elementary School. “Students have acquired life skills and knowledge, as well as providing a service to those who need it most.

“We are grateful to our families for supporting these efforts and making meaningful change. Way to go Birch Hill Lions!”

At its first meeting to start the new school year, the Birch Hill Leadership Team discussed ways to improve school as the COVID-19 pandemic lingered. This led to conversations about academic programs, social/emotional learning, and community outreach.

“It was important to the team for students to see outside of their school and neighborhood, especially after a time of isolation and quarantine,” said Ackerman.

“We reached out to the grade level team of teachers with ideas on how they and their students could help and contribute to programs in our community and the teachers jumped at the opportunity.”

“Kids naturally want to be helpful and it is good for elementary-aged kids to know they can have a positive impact with just small gestures of kindness,” said Nancylynn Lysic, a kindergarten teacher at Birch Hill

Elementary.

In November, kindergartners asked families to support Nashua Children’s Home by donating pajamas. They collected more than 400 pairs of pajamas for their service project that gave children comfortable and cozy new pjs moving into those winter months.

In December, third graders knew residents in nursing homes might be combating loneliness during the holiday season. For their service project, they wanted to give homemade cards to the residents at Greenbriar HealthCare nursing facility to spread holiday cheer and they collected hundreds of cards from each of the grade levels.

After the holidays, the Nashua Soup Kitchen needed to fill some of their shelves and grade 4 students took action. The students collected Healthy Hearts Care Packages that included soap, Q-tips, razors, laundry soap, and shampoo. The NSKS kitchen staff was overjoyed because their need was so high.

Currently, the first grade is collecting gently used towels, sheets, and blankets for the Humane Society of Nashua. They will provide comfort for our needy animals in our community and those boxes are already very full! At the same time, the Birch Hill Elementary School PTO is doing a Sneaker Drive to collect unwanted new or gently used sneakers to help the more than 600 million people in the world who do not own shoes. This project helps the environment and all those in need.

Next month, grade 2 students will be promoting the Birch Hill Earth Day Cleanup on April 22, when students will get outside and help clean up our school and their own homes. The cleanup aims to reduce waste, improve habitats, and prevent harm to wildlife and

humans.

To wrap up a year of compassion-in-action, grade 5 students will be holding a Cereal Challenge before the end of the school year. They plan to have a domino trail with the donated cereal boxes, which is a clever visual to show just how much our school contributed to helping families fight food insecurity.

Truly, way to go Birch Hill Elementary School Lions!

Tanya Ackerman is principal at Birch Hill Elementary School.

Newsletter