Ronald McDonald is Coming

Ronald McDonald heard about what the children in 411 are doing for their community service project and was so delighted he decided he wanted to come and pick up all the donations for the Ronald McDonald Metro St. Louis Charities in person!  He will be at United Services room 411 on December 22nd, 2010 at 9:30 a.m. to meet and greet all the children who bring a donation.  To celebrate the children in 411 will be baking cookies for all the children at the center who bring a donation and will serve them milk and cookies to celebrate the season of giving.

It is important for the children to understand why they are doing the project, so here is a little holiday story to share with them each day until Ronald McDonald comes to our school.

Once upon a time in a magical place called United Services room 411 there was a wonderful group of giving children.  They were all special friends.  Some of their friends and some of their teachers children had at one time been very sick, and this made these very kind children very, very sad.  Their friends had been in the hospital for a long time, sometimes a week or longer, and their mommies and daddies had to stay with them at the hospital for a long time.  The mommies and daddies got very hungry and sleepy but they didn't want to leave their children while they were sick.  They didn't know what to do.  Their clothes got stinky, they needed to take a bath, but they didn't want to get in their cars and drive all the way home and leave their sick children at the hospital all alone.  What were they to do?  The parents were so sad!  Ronald McDonald heard these sad parents and wanted to make them smile.  He knew if the parents were happier, not hungry and had clean clothes and could take a nap they could hold their sick kids and make them feel better faster and then their kids could get better and they could go home and go back to school and play with their friends.  So Ronald thought and thought.  How could he help?  Then he came up with a wonderful idea.  He could build a special room right there at the hospital just for the mommies and daddies so they wouldn't have to leave their children and drive home to wash their clothes or take a nap or a shower.  This room at the hospital would have a shower.  This room would have a kitchen.  This room would have a washer and dryer.  This room would have a TV and a sofa and soft comfy chairs where the mommies and daddies could take naps.  Maybe there would be games for the mommies and daddies to play.  And maybe Ronald could get nice people to come in and bake cookies and cakes so the mommies and daddies would have yummy things to eat while they waited for their sick children to wake up from a nap or to get done with the doctors.  That was a great idea!  So Ronald got his friends together and they built this super special room at the hospital where Leah and Landon and Noah and Ms. Brenda and Ms. Debbie's children went when they were sick.  And Leah and Noah and Landon's mommy and daddy didn't have to leave them and go home when they got stinky and needed to wash their clothes or take a shower.  Nice people baked cookies for Landon's mommy and daddy.  Noah's mommy took a nap in the soft chair and Leah's daddy took a shower in Ronald's nice bathroom.  The parents were so happy with the special place at the hospital Ronald McDonald made for them that they were able to take extra special care of Leah, Noah and Landon and they got better and were able to grow up and come to school and play with us every school day.  And they all lived happily ever after.  The end.

This is a picture of the Ronald McDonald Family Room that many of our families have used.  We would like you to show this picture to your child when you read the story so they can start to visualize where the parents went when they took a shower or ate cookies or washed clothes.  This will help them understand where the items we are collecting will go when Ronald McDonald comes and takes the donations away in his van.  The point of this project is to teach the children the value of giving and the fact that what they do impacts the lives of others.  We will be adding more home-school connection activities to the blog over the next week and a half.  Thanks for continuing this learning activity at home.