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A group of students from Rosa Parks Middle School did some learning outside the classroom when they got a lesson in giving.

Ann Morgan teaches English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) at Rosa Parks and Sherwood Elementary School in Olney, as well as Woodfield Elementary in Damascus.

Her four students at Rosa Parks, Melody Chan, an eighth-grader from Hong Kong; Esther Lee, an eighth-grader from Korea; Brian Lee, a sixth-grader from Korea; and Pratisha Pradhan, a sixth-grader from Nepal, organized a toy drive for students of a Michigan school.

Morgan's sister, Peggy Baldwin, is principal of Colt Elementary School in Lansing, an area that has been hard hit by the slumping economy.

"Most of the families in that area are somehow connected to the auto industry, so this is a tough time of year for them," Morgan said. "I wanted find a way to help my sister's school that would involve my own students."

She helped her students organize a toy drive, collecting donations from both Rosa Parks and Sherwood.

"I want them to think outside of themselves," she said. "They don't have to do a lot; they just have to be willing to do the work."

Ironically, only one of her students has been in the United States long enough to experience an American Christmas, so there were many lessons to be learned.

"It was actually easy to make this a language experience," she said. "They learned new vocabulary, had to listen and follow directions, and they did a lot of writing as they sorted and inventoried, and made labels."

While the students may not have understood everything, they knew they were helping other children.

"We packed up toys to give kids for Christmas," Chan said. "It was better than doing work in class, and we learned a lot of new words like the names of the toys, packing, sorting, organizing, collecting, donating and contributing."

They also learned map skills by figuring out how the truckload of toys would get from Maryland to Michigan.

Between the two schools, the students collected more than 300 items, enough to fill 18 boxes.

Con-way Freight, a Michigan-based company, provided free delivery of the toys to Colt Elementary School.

They picked up the boxed toys Friday afternoon and took them to their facility in Jessup, where they were consolidated with other shipments to the Midwest. They toys were expected to arrive in Michigan on Tuesday.

Lowell Kass, Con-way Service Center manager, said the company was happy to help.

"It's great to be a part of the community and to help these kids out," he said.

Morgan said she often incorporates lessons on how holidays are celebrated in the U.S., such as carving pumpkins in October and baking apple pies in November.

"This helps them to not only learn how we celebrate, but they also learn the vocabulary they are hearing on TV or in stores," she said. "It behooves them to become familiar with these words."

The students also earned Student Service Learning hours, which Morgan said is a requirement that is often difficult for ESOL students to accomplish.

"I'm really proud of them," she said. "It's a very cohesive group and they have a lot of fun together. It's a nice class to work with."

Morgan said her sister was amazed at the response, and she is thrilled to be able to provide toys for her students.

"Everyone wants kids to have a nice holiday, and one school helping another school is a good thing," Morgan said. "If this could happen between other schools, I'd be thrilled."