Fifth-graders nail lessons with toolbox project

With the rhythmic sound of banging hammers filling Columbia Gorge Elementary School’s cafeteria, Washougal High School woodshop teacher Brent Mansell smiled while watching the school district’s latest community project come to life.

All of the Washougal School District’s fifth grade students built wood toolboxes — with help from Washougal High School woodshop students, volunteers and a Vancouver-based nonprofit organization — in February to celebrate National Career and Technical Education Month.

“There’s an energy,” Mansell said during a box-building session late last month. “It’s not like (the students are) messing around. They’re focused on the task. This is what I love about our hands-on classes and our projects — the movement, the noise, the feelings, all of the real-life stuff.”

The project was inspired by Jon Girod, the founder of Careers in Construction, a nonprofit that promotes efforts to provide quality facilities, programming and networking to support growth in career and technical education construction programs in Southwest Washington.

Careers in Construction donated $5,900 to the project in the form of hammers, tape measures and wood, said Les Brown, the district’s director of communications, technology and operations.

“I want to get skilled trades moved back into the schools,” Girod said. “I want to help kids who don’t want to go to college get employed and on a career path before they graduate.”

Girod, who has owned and operated Vancouver-based Quail Homes since the late 1980s, said he borrowed the idea for the project from an organization in New York that provided opportunities for students to construct toolboxes.

“But I modified the idea,” he said. “I wanted the high school students to be engaged.”

Girod launched the project in Clark County during the 2022-23 school year, when his organization held a box-building session for one school and 40 students. The number of students increased to 900 in 2023-24 and to more than 2,000 this year.

“I’ve got most of the school districts in Southwest Washington signed up,” he said. “That isn’t about me being the top salesman or anything. It’s about the right thing at the right time.”

Mansell selected about 20 of his students to create roughly 180 kits out of plywood, to be used by the fifth-graders to build their boxes.

“We mass-produced the kits,” said Mansell, who added the kits included earplugs, safety goggles and nails. “It was like an assembly line. It was also a good opportunity for us to talk (about the fact that) this is the type of work that’s out there.”

The high school students then helped the fifth graders through the building sessions, which were Feb. 18 at Hathaway Elementary School; Feb. 19 at Gause Elementary School; Feb. 24 at Cape Horn-Skye Elementary School; and Feb. 25 at Columbia River Gorge Elementary School.

Mansell said his students felt a sense of achievement.

“They were excited. They said, ‘I didn’t know that helping teach fifth-graders would be so much fun,’” he said. “They’re learning how to be leaders. The true way of telling if you know something is to be able to teach it, right? They’re the teachers here.”

The younger students were also excited to participate in the project, Columbia River Gorge fifth grade teacher Marie Klemmer said. The project incorporated an applied math lesson tied to the fifth grade learning standards, with each student using a tape measure to calculate the dimensions and the area of their box.

“They have been learning about multiplication and area and measurement,” Klemmer said. “When they saw how all three played into the beginning of this project, their motivation was through the roof … They saw that there is a reason why they learn these things.”

At the end of the hour, each student used stickers and markers to decorate their toolbox, which they were able to take home with them.

“(I loved that the) kids got to take ownership of something and feel so proud,” Klemmer said. “I’ve heard so many kids say, ‘I did this. This is so cool. I can do this.’”

Doug Flanagan: 360-735-4669; [email protected]