A Home Depot employee helps Dean Grabow hammer together a snow globe during the Exploration and Engineering day at Jacks Valley Elementary School on Monday.
Home Depot helped Jacks Valley Elementary school pre-k through second grade students build and paint snow globes during the school’s Exploration Monday.
“Students were so excited to use hammers, nails, paint, and real tools in order to make their own snow globe,” said Jacks Valley Kindergarten teacher Becky Goins.
Exploration Mondays was launched during the 2023-2024 school year at Jacks Valley. It is a hands-on, student centered initiative under the leadership of Principal Pam Hill-Gilmartin and Vice Principal Veronica Griffith that allows teachers and students explore beyond the traditional curriculum.
“Explorations empowers kids to learn based on what they are interested in and also shows them their own potential in different careers,” said Goins
Goins said teachers make a presentation on a variety of different topics that students might want to explore, then the students vote for their top three choices and every Monday, students get to go to their exploration class for the last hour and half of school.
It not only allows teachers to share their passions with students, but it turns Mondays into an eagerly awaited event for the school community.
Some choices include, crafts and art, games, special effects, engineering, and more.
Goins’ exploration class is engineering where kids come to create and build. She said Home Depot offered to come and lead a lesson.
“I’m so glad Home Depot offered to come and do a service project for our school,” she said.
