After the devotional to start our day, we wrote letters to children at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. After some teambuilding time, we put together some Easter Decorations for a local senior assisted living facility. It was a joy to serve with the kids for the week, and we hope everyone enjoys a much needed Spring Break!
Category: 6th Grade
Soup and Water!
After the devotional to start our day, we spent time putting together soup kits for new members of Community First Village! After some fun scavenger hunt time, we took part in a presentation and activity from Well Aware, educating the students on sustainable solutions to water scarcity and contamination in different parts of the world.
Blankets and Bags!
Operation Gratitude!
To start off GO Week, the 6th grade students and staff began with a devotional time talking through Matthew 25:40, and how it applies to GO Week. Next, we wrote letters to deployed soldiers, veterans, new recruits, and first responders, showing them how much we appreciated and care for the work they do for us. We also made paracord bracelets, given in Care Packages to troops and first responders as tools to help save a life in emergency situations. We’re excited to get back at it again Tuesday!
6th Grade – Day 2
Today our 6th graders had a presentation from Well Aware to learn about water conservation and how difficult it is for many people to get clean water. It was eye opening for our 6th graders how easily we are able to get water and how much we actually use on a day to day basis. After the presentation, our students had the opportunity to “transport” the water from one spot to another.
6th Grade – Day 1
Today 6th grade discussed “see a need, fill that need.” They visited the beautiful Austin Central Library and worked on research projects about needs in our hometown. They even worked on authoring children’s books about helping the world around us. After the library, the students visited City Hall and heard from a member of the city council, Ms. Alison Alter. Watching the students eyes widen as they learned about the needs right here in Austin reminded us of the message from our all-school Chapel.
We can’t just hope that God will send someone to help; we need to remember that He has empowered us to help! We can’t wait to see what else our 6th graders will do this week!
6th Grade — Final Update!
Hey 6th grade — the winning team is the…
Remember that service is all about seeing a need and taking time to fill that need.
Until the next time you see a need!
-6th Grade Team Austin 2019
6th Grade Days 3 & 4 — Service + Fun!
We started our super-rainy Wednesday by finishing up our care packages for the homeless and by making sure that all of our books were ready for collecting for our book drive. Many thanks again to the families that contributed books and materials for our care packages — we couldn’t have done all that we did without you!
The finished care packages for the homeless! 
The books we collected for our book drive!
We also recorded solo interviews about what service and GO Week activities and people have inspired us. Please check out the video below for some of our favorite videos!
Our main service activity on Wednesday was helping to prepare for the Batten Fun Run that we’re all participating in on Friday. We made signs for each grade level to hold as they begin the run! We had a lot of fun painting these signs, and we cant wait for you to see them during the run!
The rest of Wednesday, we took time to prepare for our chapel service on Thursday. The students are reading verses, performing skits and chants, and have put together a video slideshow — we will post the video here!
Thursday was our team bonding day. We worked on our chapel presentations some more, and then had an awesome scavenger hunt throughout the middle and elementary schools! We learned the address of the 6th grade science classroom, the number of elevators in the building that only go down, the number of cubbies in the school, and how many universities fit inside Mrs. Buechler’s room. After the scavenger hunt, we made time for more fun and team competitions. We played games, solved trivia questions and rebus puzzles, and even built tall towers with spaghetti noodles and marshmallows!
Before chapel, we ate lunch outside and spent some time just playing and enjoying each others’ company in the beautiful sunshine. Our chapel service was completely put together by the students. Students told the story of the loaves and fishes, and noted how the most amazing miracle was the small boy who wanted to help feed the people. We had another group of students act out a traditional and a modern version of the story of the Good Samaritan and related it to what we accomplished during GO Week. We had yet another group share a recap of all of our service work this week and relate it all to appropriate Bible verses. Finally, Mrs. Buechler shared this wonderful video that she made with the students. Please enjoy it!
Serve one another through love. – Galatians 5:13
Until next year!
-6th Grade Team Austin 2019
6th Grade Day 2 — Busy busy!
We are worn out today!
We started our morning right on time with some team time – taking time to practice our chants and get into a positive mindset for the day. These chants and team posters are AWESOME! We’ll be sharing them at our 6th-grade chapel service tomorrow.
We were on the bus by 8:30 this morning for our shift at the Central Texas Food Bank. The Food Bank serves 46,000 people in and around and the Austin area each week, and of those 1/3 served are children. I always love this particular service activity, because there are so many different jobs to do and the kids always rise to the occasion and amaze me by going above and beyond what they’re asked to do to help. I think that they surprise themselves by having a lot more fun than they expect to have!
By the time we finished our shift at 11:30, we boxed and prepared 4,800 pounds of food, which is about 4,000 meals for Austin families!
We arrived back at Hyde Park Speedway at 12:30, and after a quick lunch and a game of Sleeper (best game ever – ask Mrs. Buechler about it!), it was time to get back to work! We spent our afternoon putting together care packages for the homeless community in Austin. The kids put new socks, band-aids, chapstick, personal disinfecting wipes, tissues, a toothbrush and toothpaste, snacks, water into bags. When we finished putting in supplies, each student added in a handwritten Bible verse. (The Green team chose Psalm 37:4 “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”) These bags will go to Gateway Church’s Food Pantry, where the church will distribute them to homeless shelters in the Greater Austin Area. All in, we put together 319 bags!
Of course, many thanks to our families who provided the necessary materials for the care packages, and another “thank you!” to the parents who gave their time and energy at the Central Texas Food Bank this morning. Neither of our service activities would have been possible without the support of our 6th grade HP families!
Until tomorrow!
-6th Grade Team Austin 2019
6th Grade Day 1 — Our morning with Micah 6 at All Saints Episcopal Church
This morning, our sixth grade students worked with Micah 6, an organization that feeds locals with food insecurity.
There are many children in Austin who get a steady lunch at school, but don’t get breakfast or dinner. With Spring Break around the corner, this can be a scary time for those students and their families. The 6th grade Hyde Park students wanted to help!
We had a great time making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and snacks for Micah 6, an organization that helps feed Austinites through All Saints Episcopal Church. We were so lucky to head just a mile down the read to serve this organization that feeds so many in our community! After everything was counted up, we made more than 500 sandwiches and at least as many snack bags for families to take home!
Many thanks to the amazing parent volunteers who took time out of their busy schedules to help us — we couldn’t have accomplished everything that we did today without your help!
After working hard all morning, we took time for a break and went to the park to play — everyone had a great time.
When we got back to campus, we spent time getting ready for the Central Texas Food Bank trip we’re taking tomorrow and having some time in our teams — we’ve all come up with slogans and team chants! More to come!
-6th Grade Team Austin 2019
GOweek 