Rossville Elementary School third-grade teacher Allison Kisor is teaming up with Ridgeland High School senior Key Club President Rebecca Hall to create a K-Kids Club inside Rossville Elementary.
"K-Kids Club is a great opportunity to teach the students how to give to others and the community," said Kisor. "What better place to give back than your own school?"
K-Kids Club students have been creating encouragement posters to hang on the walls for fellow students to make them feel like they can tackle the CRCT exams coming soon. The students also create holiday cards for people in local nursing homes.
"For my senior project I knew I wanted to do something with Key Club," said Hall. "I've been in the Key Club since my sophomore year. I'm helping to create a K-Kids Club and we have a continuation of ideas for the club next year too. There's a K-Kids Club at Chattanooga Valley Elementary School and a Builder's Club at Rossville Middle School that both are versions of Key Club."
Hall would like to work on beautification projects with the Rossville Elementary School K-Kids Club. For example, she assisted club members in creating bird feeders out of pine cones recently to hang on the school grounds.
"Our ultimate goal would be to create a reading nook outdoors with flower beds and benches to help the students take pride in our school," said Kisor, adding it would be beside the playground at Rossville Elementary. "We want to plant flowers and maintain the flower beds too."
Hall said the club meets four times a month with separate meetings for second- and third-graders and fourth- and fifth-graders.
"The kids are totally excited about this club," said Kisor, adding that 100 second through fifth grade students showed up for the first meeting and 75 of them attend the morning club meetings. "We had so many kids enroll that we had to split up grades. Due to transportation issues, we offer K-Kids Club in the mornings and the afternoons."
K-Kids Club meetings are typically held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 to 7:30 a.m. and the last Thursday of the month from 2:45 to 3:30 p.m. the club meets after school.
"It's a great thing to expose kids this young to community service work," said Kisor. "I think a lot of people would like to see the old Rossville School pride back, so you've got to start young and hopefully it will make them a lifelong community service worker."
Rossville Elementary School principal Courtney Gadd said she is really excited about the new club.
"It teaches the students to give back to their community," said Gadd.
• To learn more about the Kiwanis Club sponsored leadership building K-Kids Club, visit the organization's website.