Education Newswatch August/September 2005

In Brief
Twice the Excuse to Shop
Back-to-school shopping may be lucrative for schools this summer as Target ups the ante on its regular education donations. From July 24 to September 10, 2005, the national retailer will donate an amount equal to two percent of every purchase made on a Target REDcardSM (Target® Visa® or Target® Card) to the K-12 school of the cardholder's choice. With the Twice as Nice for Your School campaign, Target is doubling the amount it normally donates – the equivalent of one percent of each purchase – through its Take Charge of Education program. Target has donated over $138 million in unrestricted funds to K-12 schools nationwide since the inception of Take Charge of Education program. Target has donated over $138 million in unrestricted funds to K-12 schools nationwide since the inception of Take Charge of Education in 1997. To learn more about Twice as Nice for Your School, as well as Target's other education initiatives, grants and scholarships, visit www.target.com/education

Library Clerk Bequeaths $350k
George Kyle manned the desk at the Carpenter branch of the St. Louis Public Library for 46 years. He checked books, meticulously organized files, answered questions – and never tired of talking about books. Children often thought he was in charge of, or even owned, the library. He knew children's titles well and enjoyed talking about them to kids. His annual salary likely never exceeded $18,000; family and coworkers characterized him as thrifty, saying he didn't drive and lived in a small apartment. So imagine the library's surprise to learn that "Mr. Carpenter," as he was affectionately nicknamed, had left a gift of more than $350,000 to buy books, half of which will be children's books, for the branch. His family surmised that he must have carefully invested his modest salary over the years. "It was typical George," said Diane Freiermuth, who worked as a children's librarian at Carpenter. "The library was so much a part of his life." (From the Associated Press)

Autumn Art Inspiration
Harcourt Children's Books is offering a free classroom kit featuring Lois Ehlert's new book, Leaf Man. This book tells the tale of a character composed of brilliant autumn leaves, who travels the wind amidst a flock of birds, above farms, prairies and rivers. Illustrations are done entirely with color copies of various-shaped leaves that Ehlert collected from all over the country. (An interview with Ehlert appeared in the October 2002 issue of Teaching K-8, and is available at www.TeachingK-8.com in the Author Interviews section.) Appropriate for grades K-3, the kit includes a full-color poster, curriculum ideas and a reproducible that kids can color to make their own Leaf Man. To request a free kit, send a self-addressed mailing label to Leaf Man Kit, Teaching K-8 Offer, Harcourt Children's Books, 525 B St., Ste. 1900, San Diego, CA 92101. The offer is good while supplies last; allow three to five weeks for delivery.

Unhealthy Foods
May Be Junked in CT
Connecticut is well on its way to setting the strongest public school nutrition standards in the nation. The state House of Representatives voted in May to ban the sale of junk food – soda and foods high in fat and sugar and low in nutritional value – in all public schools in the state. The only exception would be a provision that allows diet soda and sport drinks to be sold in the high schools. Opposition to the bill has come from Coca-Cola and Pepsi, who have spent a combined $268,000 lobbying against the bill, and from schools concerned about losing revenue generated by junk food vendor contracts. Another provision of the bill mandates that kids in full-day kindergarten through fifth grade have at least 20 minutes of recess, outside of phys ed class, each day. The bill, expected to be approved by the Senate, could become law later this year.

Classroom Kitchen
The best way to teach kids healthy eating habits is by engaging them in hands-on food and nutrition education, according to Santa Fe-based nonprofit Cooking with Kids™. This organization has been doing just that, in classrooms throughout New Mexico, for over 10 years.

How did Cooking with Kids founder Lynn Walters entice children to stray from a culinary universe of chicken fingers and french fries, into the unknown world of Cuban black beans, tamales and green, leafy salad? Not very well, at first: When she introduced students to fresh, healthier foods through their elementary school cafeterias, Walters' efforts were a resounding failure. She then learned of a Cornell University study's findings that kids who participated in the preparation of a previously unfamiliar food ate five to 10 times as much of the food, and the likelihood that they'd eat a food again if they had tried it before was five to 20 times greater. Walters and Jane Stacey have developed a bilingual, interdisciplinary curriculum for grades K-1, 2-3 and 4-6. The cost is $55 and includes lesson plans for tasting and cooking classes and a master copy of a student food journal. The Cooking with Kids website, www.cookingwithkids.net, is scheduled to launch September 1. For more information, e-mail walters@osogrande.com.

Art for Peace
Students' Art for Peace, a Florida-based nonprofit organization, has many programs available for teachers to educate their students about ways they can individually promote nonviolence in their homes, schools, communities and throughout the world. Students become "Global Peace Ambassadors" by painting or drawing pictures with themes of peace, nonviolence and global community that are sent to students in other parts of the world. Over 4,200 schools, 5,400 teachers and 20,000 students worldwide have participated in this art exchange. Student-selected pictures are also sent to world leaders. Visit www.art-for-peace.org for more information and to request a free Teacher's Kit.