Our numbers are climbing as we currently have over 200 people signed up to make bean bags for children in Liberia. The first bean bags have arrived at the Liberia Orphan Education Project all of the way from Australia in record setting time. It truly is an amazing gesture of international friendship and caring for children. And will also be a great social studies lesson for the Liberian children. 

The pictures of the bean bags are also beginning to come onto our Flickr page and also our Facebook fan page. Be sure to upload your pictures so others can see what you are working on and get ideas. I’m truly amazed by the tutorials that are coming in with them. There is such talent in this group and we are incredibly grateful for your willingness to share that with us.

We thought we’d take a moment to explain how the bean bags will be integrated into one of LOEP’s classroom toolkits – the Mobile Classroom. LOEP developed the Mobile Classroom concept about six years ago when we began receiving regular donations of some heavy wooden boxes with wheels. Each box is painted bright, primary colors with chalkboard paint on the large back surface, and filled with instructional materials based on a subject area. For example, a Language Arts unit contains story books and readers, magnetic letters, phonics flash cards, reading and alphabet games, posters, arts and crafts materials, and items to encourage creative play based on books contained in the unit.

Each unit contains a lesson plan binder with lesson plans that utilize the materials in the unit so that teachers can understand how to best use the materials and how to integrate them into the curriculum. Orphan schools are generally small, self-contained clusters of very small classrooms and the mobile unit can be wheeled from room to room as teachers share the units contents. Sharing the unit also encourages collaborative planning by teachers. LOEP teachers are responding very enthusiastically to that concept which is relatively new to the more traditional Liberian style of teaching.

The Craft Hope bean bags will be integrated into the Mobile Classroom units along with companion lessons for using bean bags in instruction. Number bean bag sets will go in the Math and Science Mobile units and the Alphabet sets will be contained in the Language Arts and Social Studies units.

These photos help to illustrate the Mobile Classroom concept and how teachers are trained to use instructional materials in the classroom – a totally new classroom teaching technique in Liberia. It really is humbling to think about teacher training in Liberia. Looking at this picture reemphasizes the roles teachers play in a society. The empowerment of a culture.

The Science and Math Mobile Classroom unit contains basic ingredients for making bubble mix and lesson plans for simple science lessons based on bubbles. The teachers had a great time with that one as you can see from the picture! This unit also contained ‘counting bears’ manipulatives and teddy bears for creative counting play.

The Language Arts and Social Studies Mobile Classroom unit contained materials for making paper bag puppets – teachers learned how to make puppets representing community helpers to teach a simple Social Studies lesson.

Most of the materials in the Mobile Classroom units are homemade with simple materials to stress that instructional materials do not have to be purchased ready made – this is important in Liberia where so little is available and there is no funding for classroom materials. Think about this for one moment, handmade instructional materials and no funding for classroom materials. What would classrooms look like where you live if that were the case? LOEP is an amazing organization that is changing lives. The homemade items we send spur their creative ideas on how to use what they have available. A great lesson we can take with us as well.

Thanks to everyone who makes Craft Hope what it is and spreads a little hope!

If you’d like to join us, please sign up on this post.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, it’s not going to get better. It’s not.” –  Dr. Seuss, from The Lorax