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Mrs. Stewart’s first grade class at Coal City Early Childhood Center recently participated in a series of Thanksgiving-themed activities. The students learned about the concepts of needs and wants in social studies and discussed the importance of giving to others. As part of their Holiday Giving Project, they collected items such as soaps, deodorant, shampoo, crossword books, Kleenex, and highlighters with push caps. These donations, along with handmade cards, will be delivered to local nursing homes.
In addition to their giving project, Mrs. Stewart’s class joined Mrs. Wilkinson’s class for a lesson on Native Americans and Pilgrims. Mrs. Stewart’s students represented the Pilgrims while Mrs. Wilkinson’s class focused on Native Americans. The children worked in small groups to teach each other about daily life, the journey to America, and the events of the First Thanksgiving. They also enjoyed snacks themed after foods associated with early American history.
The classes also learned about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and created their own balloon designs for a parade through the Early Childhood Center.
To conclude their activities, students made colorful turkeys and wrote lists of people and things they are thankful for to share with their families. They compiled a class book titled How to Cook a Turkey featuring creative recipes that were published in The Coal City Courant and on the school district website.
Coal City Community Unit School District 1 serves Grundy and Will counties and includes several schools such as Coal City Early Childhood Center and Coal City Elementary School (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). According to data from the Illinois State Board of Education, there are 153 teachers in the district earning an average salary of $69,297; most are women (77.9 percent), while men make up 22.1 percent (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). No teachers had more than ten absences during a school year (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
The student population is predominantly White at 86.9 percent; Hispanic students make up 9.6 percent, while Black and Asian students each represent 0.6 percent (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). In 2020, spending per student was $21,619 for a total expenditure of $47 million (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
