October 27, 2022
October 24, the first day of the Baa-Baa Boutique, was incredible! The Baa-Baa Boutique is a service-learning project that will culminate with the kindergarten class purchasing an animal from Heifer International for a community in the world. It is helping these young students learn that they can be agents of change and make a difference in their community and globally as well.
The kindergarten students greeted their customers with smiles, handshakes, welcoming words, participation shyness, and their product story. Ms. Petrich and Ms. Petersen folded more than a thousand pieces of paper to create their cards. Then, in a collaboration between grandparents, special friends, and kindergarten students, unique notecards were created. The students collated the cards into bundles so our parent volunteer, Bruce France, and our librarian, Ms. Petrich, could put the finishing touches on with the blue ribbon.
They also sold plant bulbs. The students used their math skills to give the correct number of bulbs to each customer. They placed the bulbs on a ten frame and used their one-to-one correspondence to count to ten. They even used their skip-counting skills. Their favorite part was using the cash register and collecting the money.
The next phase of their service-learning project was to count the money and make observations about who was on the bills. The discussion opened up the door for critical conversations about diversity, equity, and belonging and the importance of sharing stories that represent the many people who make up our country and world. Ms. Petersen then highlighted the first five women to be honored on the US quarter over the next several years. The 2022 coins recognize the achievements of Maya Angelou, Dr. Sally Ride, Wilma Mankiller, Nina Otero-Warren, and Anna May Wong. They are also hopeful they will finally see the twenty-dollar bill with Harriet Tubman’s profile.
At our next sale, we will be selling school-made pies! We may have some other surprises as well. We will keep you posted!
