ABERDEEN — Third-grade students at Cliffwood Elementary School received an interactive civics lesson and a special visit from the Aberdeen Township Council last month.
The youngsters created pamphlets with information about the township’s local governing body, history, municipal services, public works, businesses, parks and restaurants, and presented them to the council. The pamphlets are currently on display at Aberdeen Town Hall.
“I thought the kids could do something project-based to learn about their community,” said Dawn Lasko, thirdgrade teacher at Cliffwood Elementary, who launched the pamphlet project in her classroom.
“Our lesson was about local government, so I thought, What better way to see what our local government does than to do a little research on it? I thought it would be fun to have the kids research their own local town and give the town what we learned.”
Students worked in groups to conduct web research about a specific subject area in town, said Lasko, adding that the pamphlet project also coincided with the district’s social studies curriculum.
“We learned about local government, which tied in to state and federal government,” she said.
After the brochures were proofread and illustrated, Lasko collaborated with other third-grade teachers to invite Mayor Fred Tagliarini, Councilwoman Margaret Montone, Councilman Gregory Cannon and Councilwoman Wilhelmina Gumbs to the school for a special assembly.
In December, the council members visited the entire third grade to answer questions and teach the students about municipal government and community service.
“The cutest thing they wanted to know is what the council members wanted to be when they grow up,” Lasko said. “A few of them asked very serious questions that the council could maybe talk about someday, like installing a dog park in Aberdeen Township because a lot of them have pets. It was a great idea.”
Lasko said several students at the assembly also expressed an interest in volunteerism. As a result, the school administration is now considering a partnership with the council members to help clean up the Cliffwood Beach waterfront.
“Some of them asked how else they could help the town, and I think it was [Councilman] Greg [Cannon] who mentioned that he would be doing the beach cleanup in April,” Lasko said.
“I said maybe we can ask the parents to become involved, because now that we have a personal connection with the council members, we are really going to push forward to do another family project with them. It is something that the parents, obviously, would have to bring them to.”
The council members answered additional questions from students after the assembly came to a close.
“He [Mayor Tagliarini] was very sincere when he told the kids to believe in your dreams,” Lasko said. “It’s not just about the grind.”