Learning, Service, and Caring: An Application in the First Grade

Service learning is an instructional approach that connects and combines community service activities with academic learning. It is a method that facilitates student learning through active participation in organized community service. It can be used with students across all grade levels and it can be integrated across all subjects. Service learning appeals to pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and primary grade teachers because it is an approach that reflects the basic tenets of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). Developmentally appropriate practice views young children as "active learners, drawing on direct physical and social experience as well as culturally transmitted knowledge to construct their own understanding of the world around them. In the past few years there has been a surge of interest in adopting service learning as a teaching and learning approach in the early childhood and primary grades, or from prekindergarten to third grade. But, is it appropriate or reasonable for young children to engage in community service? The authors found that service learning can enrich children's classroom experiences by engaging them in learning, service, and caring.