National Promising Practices
As part of the Schools of Character program, Character.org gives Promising Practices to schools and districts in the United States and elsewhere for implementing unique and specific strategies in character education. Over the past three years, Character.org has recognized Lunch Bunch, Hoops for Soup, Mickle Marketplace, Buzz Buddies Mentor Club, and our "Character is Magical" student-lead assemblies as National Promising Practices.
What is Lunch Bunch?
Lunch Bunch is a service organization at Samuel Mickle School that promotes leadership with a focus on enriching lives through character education, service learning, volunteerism, and philanthropy. Students develop a sense of pride and ownership in the activities they plan and coordinate for our district. Lunch Bunch has served as a catalyst for other clubs and programs in our district, and is an opportunity for student involvement that also acts as a stepping stone for middle school, high school, and future endeavors. It is evident that our representatives are committed to making a difference in the lives of others. We are proud of our students visions, and enjoy watching them come up with ideas that will help our school community thrive.
Lunch Bunch Mission Statement:
The mission of Lunch Bunch is to inspire students to get involved and make a difference within our school community. We want our students to know that their ideas are valued and that being involved is a stepping stone for the future. The program has grown significantly over the past 10 years giving every student in grades 3-6 the opportunity to become involved and to be a role model to their peers.
Committed to Excellence:
Lunch Bunch is committed to shaping our students into responsible, generous, assertive, collaborative leaders while enriching the lives of others. The program supports the core values of character education and has enhanced our school community. We currently have over 300 students involved who develop the following skills through our program:
Hoops for Soup Service Project
Hoops for Soup is an evening of fun and philanthropy planned by the Lunch Bunch. Students and teachers team up to collect food items and play a basketball game in support of two local organizations. Our students have the opportunity to participate in Hoops for Soup through participation in a foul shooting competition as part of their basketball unit in their Physical Education classes. Students with the top foul shooting percentage at each grade level are then invited to play in a basketball game alongside their teachers in grades 3-5, and against their teachers in grade 6. Hoops for Soup invites representatives from The Feed My Sheep Soup Kitchen and Blessing Store Food Pantry, two local nonprofit organizations, to educate our community about their missions. In addition, spectators and players are required to bring a canned good or boxed food item to support both organizations as their entry ticket into the game. Each year, we average approximately twenty-five boxes of donations. Hoops for Soup is an amazing annual event that brings the community together for a great cause!
Who does Hoops for Soup help?
Through our annual student-teacher basketball game, we have teamed up to support two local food pantries in our community, The Feed My Sheep Soup Kitchen and The Blessing Store Food Pantry. The Feed My Sheep Soup Kitchen, located at the United Methodist Church in Paulsboro, NJ, hot meals to individuals and families in need every Thursday in the Social Hall. Volunteers also deliver non-perishable items to individuals who are homebound. The pantry is funded by church members as well as from community donations. The Blessing Store Food Pantry, located at the Evangelical United Methodist Church in Clarksboro, NJ, has been in operation for 27 years. It was founded as the result of a discussion regarding how the church could help the needy in the community. The food pantry provides bags of groceries and non-perishable food items to individuals and families in need. The pantry is funded by monetary donations from church members as well as from the community donations.
Mickle Entrepreneurship: Mickle Marketplace
Samuel Mickle School hosted its first Mickle Marketplace: An Entrepreneurship Opportunity for Grades 4 through 6 last February. Business savvy students took independent strides to create plans, products, and prices to enter the world of venture capitalism! The Mickle Marketplace was held on February 1st from 6:30-8:00 pm in the Samuel Mickle cafeteria and provided an opportunity for students to share their products with the school and surrounding community. Hundreds attended to shop for baked goods, bath bombs, baskets, and more. Our budding entrepreneurs were excited that so many people attended to show their support. Following the event, our entrepreneurs had the opportunity to evaluate their sales and business plan, in preparation for an additional Marketplace event held in the spring. The program has grown significantly over the past year and students are currently preparing for our fourth Marketplace event to be held in June. We look forward to learning about and supporting the products that our students have developed this year!
Buzz Buddies Mentor Club
"Buzz Buddies" Mentor Club provides Clark & Mickle students with the opportunity to work collaboratively on a variety of character building activities throughout the year. The club is open to students in grades 1-6, meets weekly after school, and focuses on fostering positive social interactions & friendships among younger and older students. In addition to weekly team building activities, Mickle “Buzz Buddies” act as peer buddies for new students, reading buddies for Clark students, assist with service projects & fundraisers, lead building tours of Mickle School for our 2nd graders, creating a positive transition from 2nd to 3rd grade, and discuss strategies for being an effective role model. In addition to meeting after school weekly, 5th & 6th grade mentors spend one recess period a week with students in our self-contained special education classes. During this time, mentors assist with social skills, team building, and review of academic content. Students are selected by their teachers to be a part of Buzz Buddies based on their role model behavior. There are approximately 160 students enrolled in Mentor Club this year. We are proud of our students for being character leaders and role models in our school community!
"Buzz Buddies" Mentor Club assists with social skills, communication, team building, and promotes positive relationships among students in our schools. The program provides an opportunity for students in a variety of grades to interact weekly and fosters a connection between the buildings. Mentor club students show respect, kindness, and acceptance to one another and are role models in our school community. Mentor club also helps foster leadership and the club acts as a stepping stone for student involvement. Our student mentors lead by example and help set the tone of our positive school climate.
"Buzz Buddies" Mentor Club provides students with an incredible opportunity to be student leaders and role models within the school community. Our younger students look up to our older students and aspire to be like them. The club teaches effective strategies for communication, listening, problem solving, and collaboration that will assist our students presently and in the future. Our student mentors value being a part of a team that promotes treating others kindly and respectfully.
"Character is Magical" Assemblies
Our 6th grade student leaders meet weekly to discuss ways to celebrate character education in our school community. The group decided that one way for us to celebrate was to plan & facilitate assemblies connected to this year’s theme Character is Magical. Students & club advisors developed a plan to focus on student engagement, team building, & review of our character traits/core values through the assemblies. Students lead 4 grade level assemblies per trimester; 12 assemblies for the year for grades Pre-K-6. The assemblies include positive chants, cheers, scenario-based challenges, team building games, teachers participating in a Minute to Win It Challenge, as well as a video featuring students from each grade level sharing ways to show respect, kindness, responsibility, acceptance, integrity, & perseverance. Our student leaders have roles as hosts, game show helpers, & spirit leaders. Participants from each grade level are selected randomly from our Buzzworthy Behavior Bin. Our students do an awesome job showing respect & support for each other. To show our school unity, both students & teachers stood to recite the School Pledge together at the end of each assembly. Our Character is Magical assemblies that our 6th grade students plan, organize, and facilitate each trimester provide an opportunity for our students and staff to reflect on and celebrate our core values. Our students and staff members share the magic of having great character every day! At EGTS, our Character is Magical!
We are proud of our students and teachers for developing and supporting these programs and our honored and humbled to have them recognized as Promising Practices by Character.org. We plan on continuing to submit applications for the Promising Practices Program each year.
What is Lunch Bunch?
Lunch Bunch is a service organization at Samuel Mickle School that promotes leadership with a focus on enriching lives through character education, service learning, volunteerism, and philanthropy. Students develop a sense of pride and ownership in the activities they plan and coordinate for our district. Lunch Bunch has served as a catalyst for other clubs and programs in our district, and is an opportunity for student involvement that also acts as a stepping stone for middle school, high school, and future endeavors. It is evident that our representatives are committed to making a difference in the lives of others. We are proud of our students visions, and enjoy watching them come up with ideas that will help our school community thrive.
Lunch Bunch Mission Statement:
The mission of Lunch Bunch is to inspire students to get involved and make a difference within our school community. We want our students to know that their ideas are valued and that being involved is a stepping stone for the future. The program has grown significantly over the past 10 years giving every student in grades 3-6 the opportunity to become involved and to be a role model to their peers.
Committed to Excellence:
Lunch Bunch is committed to shaping our students into responsible, generous, assertive, collaborative leaders while enriching the lives of others. The program supports the core values of character education and has enhanced our school community. We currently have over 300 students involved who develop the following skills through our program:
- Leadership
- Organization
- Public Speaking
- Team Building/Collaboration
- Project Management
- Love of Community Service
Hoops for Soup Service Project
Hoops for Soup is an evening of fun and philanthropy planned by the Lunch Bunch. Students and teachers team up to collect food items and play a basketball game in support of two local organizations. Our students have the opportunity to participate in Hoops for Soup through participation in a foul shooting competition as part of their basketball unit in their Physical Education classes. Students with the top foul shooting percentage at each grade level are then invited to play in a basketball game alongside their teachers in grades 3-5, and against their teachers in grade 6. Hoops for Soup invites representatives from The Feed My Sheep Soup Kitchen and Blessing Store Food Pantry, two local nonprofit organizations, to educate our community about their missions. In addition, spectators and players are required to bring a canned good or boxed food item to support both organizations as their entry ticket into the game. Each year, we average approximately twenty-five boxes of donations. Hoops for Soup is an amazing annual event that brings the community together for a great cause!
Who does Hoops for Soup help?
Through our annual student-teacher basketball game, we have teamed up to support two local food pantries in our community, The Feed My Sheep Soup Kitchen and The Blessing Store Food Pantry. The Feed My Sheep Soup Kitchen, located at the United Methodist Church in Paulsboro, NJ, hot meals to individuals and families in need every Thursday in the Social Hall. Volunteers also deliver non-perishable items to individuals who are homebound. The pantry is funded by church members as well as from community donations. The Blessing Store Food Pantry, located at the Evangelical United Methodist Church in Clarksboro, NJ, has been in operation for 27 years. It was founded as the result of a discussion regarding how the church could help the needy in the community. The food pantry provides bags of groceries and non-perishable food items to individuals and families in need. The pantry is funded by monetary donations from church members as well as from the community donations.
Mickle Entrepreneurship: Mickle Marketplace
Samuel Mickle School hosted its first Mickle Marketplace: An Entrepreneurship Opportunity for Grades 4 through 6 last February. Business savvy students took independent strides to create plans, products, and prices to enter the world of venture capitalism! The Mickle Marketplace was held on February 1st from 6:30-8:00 pm in the Samuel Mickle cafeteria and provided an opportunity for students to share their products with the school and surrounding community. Hundreds attended to shop for baked goods, bath bombs, baskets, and more. Our budding entrepreneurs were excited that so many people attended to show their support. Following the event, our entrepreneurs had the opportunity to evaluate their sales and business plan, in preparation for an additional Marketplace event held in the spring. The program has grown significantly over the past year and students are currently preparing for our fourth Marketplace event to be held in June. We look forward to learning about and supporting the products that our students have developed this year!
Buzz Buddies Mentor Club
"Buzz Buddies" Mentor Club provides Clark & Mickle students with the opportunity to work collaboratively on a variety of character building activities throughout the year. The club is open to students in grades 1-6, meets weekly after school, and focuses on fostering positive social interactions & friendships among younger and older students. In addition to weekly team building activities, Mickle “Buzz Buddies” act as peer buddies for new students, reading buddies for Clark students, assist with service projects & fundraisers, lead building tours of Mickle School for our 2nd graders, creating a positive transition from 2nd to 3rd grade, and discuss strategies for being an effective role model. In addition to meeting after school weekly, 5th & 6th grade mentors spend one recess period a week with students in our self-contained special education classes. During this time, mentors assist with social skills, team building, and review of academic content. Students are selected by their teachers to be a part of Buzz Buddies based on their role model behavior. There are approximately 160 students enrolled in Mentor Club this year. We are proud of our students for being character leaders and role models in our school community!
"Buzz Buddies" Mentor Club assists with social skills, communication, team building, and promotes positive relationships among students in our schools. The program provides an opportunity for students in a variety of grades to interact weekly and fosters a connection between the buildings. Mentor club students show respect, kindness, and acceptance to one another and are role models in our school community. Mentor club also helps foster leadership and the club acts as a stepping stone for student involvement. Our student mentors lead by example and help set the tone of our positive school climate.
"Buzz Buddies" Mentor Club provides students with an incredible opportunity to be student leaders and role models within the school community. Our younger students look up to our older students and aspire to be like them. The club teaches effective strategies for communication, listening, problem solving, and collaboration that will assist our students presently and in the future. Our student mentors value being a part of a team that promotes treating others kindly and respectfully.
"Character is Magical" Assemblies
Our 6th grade student leaders meet weekly to discuss ways to celebrate character education in our school community. The group decided that one way for us to celebrate was to plan & facilitate assemblies connected to this year’s theme Character is Magical. Students & club advisors developed a plan to focus on student engagement, team building, & review of our character traits/core values through the assemblies. Students lead 4 grade level assemblies per trimester; 12 assemblies for the year for grades Pre-K-6. The assemblies include positive chants, cheers, scenario-based challenges, team building games, teachers participating in a Minute to Win It Challenge, as well as a video featuring students from each grade level sharing ways to show respect, kindness, responsibility, acceptance, integrity, & perseverance. Our student leaders have roles as hosts, game show helpers, & spirit leaders. Participants from each grade level are selected randomly from our Buzzworthy Behavior Bin. Our students do an awesome job showing respect & support for each other. To show our school unity, both students & teachers stood to recite the School Pledge together at the end of each assembly. Our Character is Magical assemblies that our 6th grade students plan, organize, and facilitate each trimester provide an opportunity for our students and staff to reflect on and celebrate our core values. Our students and staff members share the magic of having great character every day! At EGTS, our Character is Magical!
We are proud of our students and teachers for developing and supporting these programs and our honored and humbled to have them recognized as Promising Practices by Character.org. We plan on continuing to submit applications for the Promising Practices Program each year.