Katrina-What do the children need?

HI everyone!! I am going to be attending a meeting with my son and the meeting is about a project to help the children of Katrina that have lost everything and will not be able to attend school for quite a while. Can anyone please give me some ideas as to what these children may need, besides the obvious things? I want to bring some good quality ideas to the table, something that will really benefit the children there. Also can anyone give me some good, fun, creative ways that 5th and 6th graders can raise money for the cause too? Thank you all in advance for all of the suggestions and I hope that in our small way here, we can help out abundantly!! Thank you all, Allie from Texas

If the children are young and are staying in shelters, you might want to consider crayons, coloring books, activity books, etc. Just some ideas that you might want to consider. You know it is so great of you to think about the children...sometimes, they just seemed to get overlooked. Norma

Hi Allie! I know I'm late in responding...but I teach 5th grade and our school was discussing an idea that was a good one. Our kids aren't allowed to wear caps/hats to school. The suggestion came up for a 'hat day" where they donate $1 to be able to wear the hat/ball cap of their choice on a designated day. The kids loved the idea! We may consider doing a whole week of such things--hat day, gum day, pajama day, etc... (all the things they'd love to do at school but normally can't). All the money would then go to help the kids in shelters. Also--on what they need.... I think they need things to entertain themselves with in the shelters. I love the idea of crayons and paper--that's always good. Another thing would be decks of cards, checker games, simple board games, etc... There are some good hand held electronic games out there, but they cost more. You can buy checkers at Walmart for just a few bucks--and kids will organize themselves into serious tournaments in my classroom on Fun Fridays! Hope this helps---bless you for caring enough to be involved! Michelle