8th Grade Community Project

Parent support meeting is scheduled for Monday evening 9/8 in the Media Center from 6pm-7pm

If you have any questions, please reach out to Mrs. Thornburg at maranda.thornburg@cms.k12.nc.us

Check out our video - our 8th grade students are AMAZING!

Here is a list of topics to choose from when considering the 8th grade project.

International Day of peace

Belmont Neighborhood Food Drive/Blessing Boxes

Veteran's Day Breakfast Autism Speaks Event

Tree Charlotte The Middle School Tool Kit

Clean Campus Media Center Organization

Diwali Celebration The Messages in the front of the school Marquee

International Festival Nutrition

Advocates for Street Clean up (Keep Charlotte Beautiful)

Music focus Block Love (feeding the homeless)

sports focus A Roof Above (Welcome Home Kit)

Alexander Street Park Clean-Up Preschool support (Near Piedmont)

Catawba River Keepers American Heart Association

Fall Campus Clean-up Cancer Awareness / Support

Piedmont Community Pantry Bicycle Drive/ ReCyclery support

Steve's Coats for Kids Turn the Lights off Campaign

Friendship Garden/Community Garden Supporting the Animal Shelter / Advocacy

Front Beds and Planters around the school Bike/Pedestrian Safety Campaign

Light the Night Leukemia/Lymphoma Foundation Walk

Support / advocacy for disabilities Anti-Bullying

theater focus

Mental Health

School Mural ( we approve a maximum of 3 per year) You must apply with a drawing of your proposal,

Nursing home/Elder Care

Community Projects and Showcase 2025.MP4

8th Grade Community Project Showcase Expectations 2025

Community Project Process Journal Link (Click Below)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yulLBosCrevnScL2rqupyRQpMA6eoulsgMaX6ZpaZV0/copy

or https://bit.ly/CPjournal2425

Make your copy and begin your journey.

All students will receive training on this IB Continuation requirement through their Individuals and Societies Classes by Friday September 6th, 2024

application for hosting an event

application for hosting a drive

application to paint a mural

YOu are cordially invited to attend a Parent Q&A session on the community project next Tuesday September 10th at 5:30 pm in the media center. If you cannot attend the event Mrs. Thornburg will be sending out a short video with additional information. Most of your questions will be answered on the slides provided here.

Community Project Process/Procedures 2024-25

CP Supervisor Interest List 2425

Community Project Process Journal www.bit.ly/CPJournal

The community project is an IB continuation requirement and a Piedmont expectation. Please reach out to Mrs. Thornburg, the IB Coordinator, at maranda.thornburg@cms.k12.nc.us with any questions.

FAQ about the Community Project

When is the Community Project Due? The last objective (Objective D "Reflection") is due at the end of the Semester - January 17th, 2025
When is the actual Showcase? The 2025 Showcase will be Friday February 7th, 9:35am
How does my child know about this project? The community project is introduced to students in seventh grade after they visit the 8th grade showcase. Students are asked to create a Google Document in their IB Portfolios for Community Project brainstorming. Then in 8th grade Mrs. Thornburg will meet with every student through their social studies class to go over the community project process journal and the selection of supervisors. This information is also on the morning announcements and shared through Principal Barone's Saturday messages.
How does my child know who his/her supervisor is? Students will receive a request for Supervisor form during the Social Studies visit to review the journal. They will complete the form with their first, second, and third choice of a supervisor. Mrs. Thornburg will use the request forms to assign the Students to their supervisors. We have lots of new staff members this year so students may be assigned to someone they do not know. Mrs. Thornburg, as well as homeroom teachers, are also available to offer additional support where needed. The deadline to turn in the request form is Monday Sept 18 in Mrs. Thornburg's box in the media center (or it can be turned in to any 8th grade teacher)
Does my child have to work alone on this project? Students may work alone, with a partner, or with two other teammates. No more than 3 students should be working together on this project. Students will choose their teammates in September for this project.
What if we have a plan, but we change our mind and want to do something else? Communication is Key. To change a topic students must get approval from their Community Project Supervisor. Note it may be double the work to change the plan, but it is also a good exercise to recognize that a plan needs to change and to manage the execution of the new plan/idea.
What happens if my supervisor does not respond to my emails and I do not have the supervisor as a teacher this year? If a student is having difficulty communicating with the supervisor please reach out to Mrs. Thornburg as soon as possible.
Does my community project have to be done at school? No, the community project can be completed in a broader community (with adult supervision) . The project could be done completely in the student's neighborhood, place of worship, or with an organization that does not include exclusively Piedmont students.
What if I can't think of a project idea? No worries. This is the first time students have had an assignment on this kind of scale. Adults are here to help you. Please reach out to Mrs. Thornburg with ideas. We have lots of needs at Piedmont that students could tap into. Check out the list below......

Community Project ideas that need to be managed this year. If you are looking for some ideas, let me know if any of these interest you.

Thanksgiving food drive to support the Belmont Neighborhood (November)This will be our only organized food drive for first semester

This event has been claimed by a group already and will be working with Mrs. Thornburg and Ms. Kinkopf.

Autism Speaks - several students have already talked about hosting this event.

Community Garden (fall crops for first semester)

Keep Charlotte Beautiful Street Clean Campaign

(Piedmont has adopted streets around the school we have a pledge to help clean this 1 mile area clean. This project would organize and manage 3 street clean ups beginning in September and should be completed with the last clean up in January. ) 1 Semester with flexibility on scheduling.

Bulletin Board Beautification/Maintenance (First Semester)

(Manage a few of the bulletin boards in the building)

Charlotte Storm Water

Piedmont Campus Clean-up (Fall event) work with the PTSA

Veteran's Day Breakfast (this project has been claimed.)

Supporting a Roof Above (There are lots of opportunities to support this organization.

Flower Bed planting and maintenance in front of school

Caring for our Potted Plants on the front steps/ entrance to our building.

Adopt the Fish Tank

Tree Charlotte

This is a great organization that helps support our city's tree canopy.

https://treescharlotte.org/ There are lots of ways to be involved with this organization.

Piedmont Courtyard -

Weed, plant, and water the raised beds in the courtyard. Just the middle two large beds OR this could be two groups working on each bed. Ms. Delaney also has an area in the Courtyard with her Therapy Garden. She will have her crew to work on that part of the Courtyard.

The Charlotte Crop Walk - October 6th https://www.charlottecropwalk.org/

Piedmont Community Pantry

This activity would involve recruiting Piedmont families to support the Food Pantry that is located in the front of our building. You would make announcements, create a sign up etc... to help support this pantry that is used by our community neighbors.

The Little Lending Library A group of students have shown interest in the project already.

Snack Bags for the Girls and Boys Club of Charlotte - Already Claimed

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk Saturday Oct. 26 Link below

https://secure.acsevents.org/site/STR?pg=entry&fr_id=105640

Calculator Clean-Up

This project would need organizers to work on cleaning up our school's graphing calculators. This includes the following: sticker removal, sanitiztion, renumbering, and securing donations of batteries to replenish them. If you are interested, contact Mrs. Gorman at school or via email: karenj.gorman@cms.k12.nc.us.

Light the Night to support the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society - organize a team. This has been a Piedmont tradition Saturday November 26th

Walk to End Alzheimer Saturday Oct. 19th #Walk2EndAlz

#Walk2EndAlz

School Mural (This year we will approve only 3 murals for this activity.)

The application for a School Mural can be found HERE. The due date for the application is Friday September 27th All forms must be turned in to Mrs. Thornburg by this date for consideration. You can grab a copy of the application from Mrs. Thornburg if you are unable to print. Signatures required

Collection drives to support area needs (Some ideas can be found at https://www.roofabove.org/host-a-collection-drive/)

The drives will be limited so we do not have drives on top of one another. If you are planning a drive you will need to get that information on our Community Project Calendar as soon as possible.. This cannot be a last minute idea.

Other area events can be found HERE

The last day to hold an event or drive on Piedmont's Campus is January 10th.

Recycling Project

Students MAY NOT COLLECT MONEY for any charity at school!

Always check with an agency before organizing a drive. They may not need what you think they need!

This list will be updated often and if any are claimed it will be noted on this site. If you have any questions please contact Mrs. Thornburg at maranda.thornburg@cms.k12.nc.us

Community Project Overview 2023

The Showcase for the 24-25 School year is Friday February 7th

The process journal you see in the video is the same - except for the due dates.

Community Project Showcase 2023

CP Showcase Video 2020.mp4

C.P. Showcase Slidshow

Check out Holden Vallimont's Community Project. He hosted a soccer clinic for young people in his neighborhood. Go to the last slide to see his video. This is an example of an excellent project.

Great Job Holden!

Flying Colors International Extravaganza

Door decorating was a part of our Flying Colors International day. This door was decorated by Ms. Smith's homeroom class.

Ms. Hanson's board depicts all the nations in the world that speak French

Mr. Mallory's Door for the Flying Colors International Day Celebration - ERD Showcase

Port Pillow Project donation to the Levine Cancer Institure

Street clean-up to support KCB - Keep Charlotte Beautiful Campaign (Fall 2022)

Piedmont Students making an impact on our community 2022

Hungry and Homeless event Fall 2022 - students invited guest speaker from non-profit, Block Love to speak and set up two rooms to dispell myths about homelessness and a poverty simulation activity called Pay/Spent. 50 students attended this after school event

The International Day of peace activities were planned and managed by 8th graders Claire and Nora. All students were engaged in activities for this early release day. Sixth and Seventh grade students earned service hours for participating in this event.

Students worked to collect food for the annual Belmont Community Food Drive to support our neighbors in need. (fall 2022)

Drew Dang hosted the Block of Love Event in uptown Charlotte to feed serve food to some of our Neighbors in need.

Thanks for a successful event and thanks to all the Piedmont families that volunteered 2/19/22

Dilworth Community Association raising money to protect tree canopy DCA is trying to raise $25,000 to plant new trees

Jimmy, Jason, and Emmanuel are working to restore our Little Food Pantry that was built last year to help food our neighbors in need. Over the summer someone vandalized the pantry and now these young men are going to be rebuilding it so we can continue to help our neighbors. WSOC TV has partnered with us and Lowe's Home Improvement will be helping as well with supplies and building assistance.

Brycen and Wyatt are working with WSOC TV to manage a coat drive to support Steve's Coats for Kids. They will kick off their campaign next week and it will continue through Dec. 15th. Their goal is to collect 550 coats.

Ryan Clark's Neighborhood Storm Drain Clean-Up Project 2021

Ryan Working hard in his neighborhood to remove debris from the storm drains.

Ryan's efforts will deter flooding in his neighborhood and keep the streams and creeks nearby healthy. Thanks for all your work.

Rafael and Vaughn Reed built and installed a Little Food Pantry in front of our school. They have it well stocked with non-perishable foods, toiletry items and even some books. If you or your family would like to donate some food items - just put them neatly in our pantry. If the pantry is full - drop them off in the front office and we will stock the pantry as needed. Great job guys. Check out their news piece on Instagram at wsoctv or HERE

Julian Boyce collect an insane amount of coats to serve our community in need. Now more than ever people need to stay warm to survive. Julian tapped into the Steve's Coats for Kids campaign at WSOC TV to organize the drive. Check out his story here

Community Project Spotlight

8th Grader Francisco Martinez is working on keeping our Community Garden alive and active by creating an Adopt a Bed Program. sixth and seventh grade students adopted a garden bed to manage so that we can maintain safe distances and work at their own pace. At this time all beds are adopted out and we have Kale, Lettuce, a Variety of Greens, Red Cabbage, and cauliflower growing in the beds.

Another Community Project Spotlight - go to our Peace Day Tab....

8th Grade Community Project Slides Presentation 2223.mp4

Show Case Slides should include:

Topic/Project Title and Student names (group or individual project)
Goal of your project - Agency supported or cause that is being supported or advocating for.
The Global Context connected to your project
The IB Learner Profile connected to your project
The Approaches to Learning Skills you used
What were your challenges
What were your successes.
Advice your would give to 6th and 7th grade students
Link to a survey for feedback from your audience. (Google Form)
Lots of pictures and / or a video of your action.
See the Soccer on the Block example below - and I have shared several slide examples on the video here.

Showcase Information

Check out the slides below for details for students to prepare for the Community Project Showcase on

February 9th, 2024

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