Marlborough – The entire Jaworek Elementary third-grade class has had a three-week long pajama party, of sorts. The 120 students and their teachers are participating in “The Great Bedtime Story Pajama Drive.” Ever since Thanksgiving, the students have been bringing in new pajamas to benefit families in need.
“It started with an email from Scholastic books,” said third-grade teacher Claire Nicholson. The Scholastic Reading Club was teaming up with the Pajama Program again this year to collect pajamas to distribute with books to children ages birth through 17. The Pajama Project coordinates the donations, and Scholastic donates a book for every set of pajamas donated. Classes were invited to participate in the project, and Jaworek's third-graders took the invitation to heart.
“The whole school participates in the food pantry project, which is great,” said Nicholson. “But this project is just the third grade, and the students feel a stronger ownership in it.”
The students and staff donated 122 pajama sets in just three weeks. Nicholson said she recently learned that the donations will be used locally, in the Metrowest area.
The teachers took the project a step further and created a math activity about it. A bulletin board in the third-grade hallway sports a graph in which each pajama cut-out equals a certain number of pajamas donated. Students had to analyze the board and complete a worksheet as part of their math graphing unit.
On Dec. 10, the last day of the project, the students had pajama party to celebrate. Third-grade students and teachers spent the school day in their winter jammies, a visual reminder of how a group of people can make a difference.
Third-grader Lucas Patterson said the project dovetails well with his Scouting ethic.
“To me, it's part of the Scout law, to do my best to help other people, to help somebody in such a simple way,” he said.
To learn more about The Great Bedtime Story Pajama Drive, visit http://www.scholastic.com/pajamadrive.
