Sixth-grade students at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto raised more than $1,000 to purchase books for a San Jose public elementary school class that began the year with only 35 books.
The books were handed over to a class of fourth-graders from Olinder Elementary School on Oct. 30, Hausner officials reported. Students from both schools met at a park near the downtown San Jose school after several months of writing letters to each other.
The project was part of a program at Hausner called PBL Sacred Spaces; PBL stands for project-based learning. The students created a sacred space in their own classroom — with poetry and Tibetan prayer flags — then decided to help another classroom create its own sacred space. They raised money for the books through a book sale.
“This PBL was a tremendous success not only because it connected subjects spanning from humanities and Hebrew/Jewish studies to STEM [science, technology, engineering and math], but also because it taught important life skills, like how to collaborate to achieve desired results,” said Annie Lefkowitz, sixth-grade humanities teacher at Hausner.