Bug Juice for Sale!

A few weeks ago a gal I grew up with posted a link to Sun, Sand and Second Grade's "Adopt a Texas Classroom" initiative to help classrooms affected by Hurricane Harvey. I signed up my 2nd graders and we were matched with a 1st grade bilingual classroom in Texas. As a class we began brainstorming ideas of how to raise money for these 1st graders who had lost so much. We decided to sell "Bug Juice" as our version of a lemonade stand at recess to raise money. We took a week to create student teams to sell juice, decide on a recipe, create prices and posters to advertise. In this time I realized I would need to very quickly plug in some money lessons to help us with this project. (I usually do money toward the end of 2nd grade, but knew we would need to change that this year!) We began our journey with a trip to the bank! I happen to be married to one of the loan officers in town, so I sweet talked him into scheduling us for a tour and a money lesson! The kids loved it!   

To begin our juice creations I took a trip to the Dollar Store to buy supplies to get us started and my student's parents went above and beyond to supply cups, Kool-aid packets, Sprite, whatever we needed to make our juice! I am so grateful for their support! One day during our sale week I realized we were going to run out of supplies. I quickly used SignupGenius to create a parent sign-up for supplies and I had parents bringing juice and cups by the end of that school day! I cannot say enough about how much I appreciate their support with this project. 

One of the most amazing things to me is that we sold juice Monday-Friday last week during recess and during that time we made $595 to purchase supplies for our Texas friends. Our little Kansas town with around 950 people was able to support our project and truly make it a success. I am so thankful to our school building leaders, teachers, students parents and community members for supporting us with this awesome endeavor. This activity has taught my students and myself so much and I know we won't forget it! THANK YOU!

Below I have a few pictures to document our "Bug Juice" adventure:

We counted quarters everyday and one student was so pumped when he found a Texas one! 

My husband gave us a change drawer to use and I taped coins in the drawer to help kids organize while selling the juice. 

My favorite "Bug Juice pic". I wish you could see their smiling faces, because they are just so darn cute! 

Here you can see the "Bug Juice" creation in action!

At the last minute we decided to add gummy worms to our recipe and they were a huge hit! 

We started our goal at $150 dollars and graphed our progress every day.

We kept adding and adding sections...

Until soon it was too big to hang up! 

We have begun writing as a class to our first grade friends and hope to be pen pals this year. (We are trying out some new Spanish phrases to connect with our friends, We've been working on "ama a tus amigos" which we hope means "Love your friend" to sign our letter)

Happy notes are ready to send off! 

STEAM Bins

Here's a quick pic of my STEAM Bins that I use with my second graders. The ask, imagine, plan, create and improve posters were a freebie from http://wildaboutfirsties.blogspot.com. I ordered the STEAM bin packet with the title, bin covers and task cards from Brooke Brown at Teach Outside the Box on TPT, click this link to find her store: Teach Outside the Box. I was initially thinking I'd put all the bins on a shelf, but found this rolling cart in storage at our school. Two wheels were off, but with some rubber bands and hot glue, I was able to slip them back on in no time! #teacherskills My kiddos absolutely love them! Right now I use them for early finishers and if we have a few minutes in transitions or after math journals. I am so thrilled that I finally found something hands-on that students can do after they finish an assignment. I have two very simple rules for the kids: 1.) No talking or the bin must be put away. 2.) All material must be picked up when finished. Otherwise, I let the kids' creativity fly! Below are a couple links to videos of my kids using the STEAM bins if you'd like to see them in action! (Sorry in advance for the views of my feet as I move from desk to desk in the videos, but it was so peaceful walking around just listening to materials moving as I knew brains were working...)  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx9pPDpF9DQZMWNzSWlWV0RNalE/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx9pPDpF9DQZbExyYzhWZlBWc28/view?usp=sharing