Homeless

This term Year Four considered the four needs to survive; food, water, warmth and shelter.

The class children enjoyed debating about whether they should give Tzedakah to the homeless and weighed up the pros and cons. They wrote to persuade people to agree with their points of view.

In order to stimulate ideas for poetry, the ‘homeless’ children spent a shivery time outside, with no shelter, lying on the cold ground wrapped in sleeping bags and blankets. The children made shelters from cardboard boxes and visited our ‘soup kitchen’ to warm up. The children were inspired to write emotive poems and produced thought provoking work.

Shoshana, a local artist, who visits the homeless in London, visited the children in class. She talked about how she and her husband collect donations of warm clothes and blankets to take to the homeless each week. She uses tzedakah to buy flasks, tea, coffee and soup to provide hot drinks for them and also tuna and mayonnaise to make up baguettes to give out. Year Four gave tzedakah and collected warm clothing. It was lovely to see photos of homeless people receiving the gifts.