How the Children Give Back to Our Community

The holiday season is busy and full of excitement. It is also a time when our school community turns its efforts toward giving. Each year, we host our Holiday Charity Bazaar, a cherished tradition that begins weeks before Thanksgiving and continues into December.

The work starts quietly in the classrooms. Teachers and children create handmade crafts to sell. They make simple, heartfelt items such as ornaments, personalized oven mitts, bird feeders, and cookie mixes. The teachers plan creative projects, and the children work on them throughout the weeks. In time, the shelves fill with treasures made by their small hands.

When Bazaar Day arrives, the classrooms transform into lively little markets. Tables are arranged with the children’s crafts, each one carefully priced in whole dollars. Parents and grandparents come to shop, while the children proudly sit at their tables, ready to sell their work. They greet the shoppers, handle the money and make change.

After the sale, the total is tallied and divided evenly among all the children. Each child takes home an envelope with their portion of the earnings to use for a special purpose: choosing a toy to give to a child in need. Parents take their child to shop for the gift, which is then brought back to school, unwrapped and ready to donate.

On donation day, our neighborhood fire truck comes to the school, and the children personally hand over the toys they selected. They are proud and excited to give their gifts.

Through this tradition, children experience the full circle of community and Montessori. They create, share, earn, and give, demonstrating lessons in grace, independence, real work for a real purpose. It is a living lesson in enterprise and compassion, reminding us all that the season is truly more about giving than receiving.