WATERLOO -- The Longfellow Elementary School kindergartners are on the floor gathered around a fleece blanket with its edges cut into strips.

Small hands reach for the fabric fringes, careful to match up corresponding pieces from the top and bottom blankets. They tie the pieces together, securing each with two knots.

Once all the proper strips are tied, the no-sew two-ply fleece blanket decorated with heart designs in pastel colors of purple, pink and white is complete. Ta'Darius Sykes knows what to do with it then.

"Put it in the bag," says the kindergartner. "Take it to the firefighters and the police."

A pile of knapsacks, their drawstrings pulled tightly to create a snug package for the blankets folded up inside, sit at the front of Sherri Gabbard's kindergarten class. The blankets will be distributed to agencies that work with people in crisis.

"If someone got hot from the fire, that means you give them a blanket to keep them warm," says kindergartner Tyler Slater.

Making the blankets is one of six service-learning projects under way or planned at Longfellow. Others focus on making cards to be given with books to new parents, writing notes to include in boxes sent to those serving overseas in the military, creating bags of supplies for kids going to summer camp, recording books on tape to help younger students learning to read and writing notes to nursing home residents. Funding for the projects comes from a $7,500 Iowa Department of Education community service learning grant.

A portion of the grant has also been used to establish a Youth Training Corps in the metro area, which operates with the support of Allen Health Systems. The group of students is training others to put Character Counts' six pillars of character into action through service-learning projects. Recently, the eight-student corps provided training to Waterloo Community Schools' elementary and middle school counselors and family support workers.

Longfellow teachers are emphasizing some of the six pillars of character with their students as the rationale for doing the projects. Gabbard talks to her students about caring and citizenship in connection with making the blankets. The project makes a difficult concept like citizenship more concrete for the 5-year-olds.

"It's really hard for them to realize something other than them, but they're doing good," says Gabbard. "We work really hard to get the kids to realize what a person of good character is."

The kindergartners are also making cards to tuck into the bags, donated by John Deere. Among the students sitting at a table drawing pictures for their cards is Daijah Smith. She explains that the two stick figures near the blue she has colored across the bottom of the card are people at the beach.

Inside the card, children copy words from a piece of paper: "I hope this blanket keeps you warm and safe." The cards are signed "Longfellow kids."

The project is being done in conjunction with Anna Bagby's Expanded Learning Program students, who cut the strips on the 48- by 60-inch blankets. Before the community service grant came through, Bagby started the project with some funds from an after-school program she runs at Longfellow called Learn It, Use It. That program receives funding through a federal grant administered by Pathways Behavioral Services.

Bagby has enough materials to make about 60 blankets, and she hopes to wrap up the project by the end of February. Along with cutting the strips, some of her upper elementary students are volunteering to work with the kindergartners on tying the blankets.

"Leadership skills will come out of this, because they (ELP students) are going down there and helping the kindergartners," said Bagby.

Fifth-graders Alexus Peppers and Tina Shaffer are helping in Gabbard's class. They like the idea that the blankets will be given to people in need following a crisis situation.

"It kind of feels good to help other kids," says Peppers. Those who receive the blankets will "have something they can keep that reminds them of a time they were rescued."

Contact Andrew Wind at (319) 291-1507 or andrew.wind@wcfcourier.com.