Park Forest, IL–(ENEWSPF)– The incoming students in Park Forest-Chicago Heights School District 163’s Mohawk Intermediate Center’s fourth/fifth grade gifted classroom were able to feed the hungry by doing homework.
The students honed their vocabulary skills during the summer months through the Free Rice Program, generating donations of rice to feed more than 5,000 refugees in Bangladesh and Myanmar.
An online philanthropic program, Free Rice provides vocabulary enrichment lessons for students and rewards their studies with grains of rice. The Mohawk students’ efforts and correct answers earned 2,051,885 grains of rice, which was distributed among 5,130 refugees.
“This summer, my students were required to complete 20 hours of Free Rice vocabulary practice,” said teacher Danielle Gladstone. “I thought it was such an amazing concept for students to be able to improve their vocabulary while changing lives across the world. The students are well aware of what an impact they have made, and I am extremely proud of their efforts.”
The students enthusiastically supported the project and are continuing it during the school year.
“I really liked the program because I was able to enhance my vocabulary and every time I had the right answer, I accumulated 20 grains of rice for countries less fortunate than we are,” said fourth grader Romy Love, who devoted one hour a day this summer to the computer generated vocabulary program instead of playing computer games.
Classmate Darrion Talley, a fifth grader, also was happy to spend profitable time with the computer this summer. He noted, “I learned vocabulary and was able to donate rice to people who need it. I think it’s great that we are using our brains to help people. We have to keep learning so that we can help more people.”
More information online at http://www.freerice.com
