Second-fourth grade summer school instructors, Val Ehlers and Hillary Smith planned a 21st Century cross curricular unit as a portion of their summer school curriculum. Students brainstormed charities that they would like to raise money for. After discussion, students chose the GR Summer Sacks Program, which delivers food to students in need over the summer.

A lemonade and treat stand was then put into action. Students learned about budgeting, estimating, counting money, multiplying, and unit conversion. Students wrote thank you letters to their speaker, Angie Thesing and Trunck’s Grocery Store. Students learned about main ideas when creating posters and newspaper articles to the local newspapers. Learning about customer relations and communication skills were also important skills.

Having sixteen students at the grocery store at once was problematic, so while one group was at Trunck’s, the other group visited Pioneer Seed, where students learned how reading, writing, and math skills are used daily by the various Pioneer employees and farmers. Students were kept on their toes as calculated how many bags of seed would be needed to plant one acre of corn and how much money a farmer would need to plant an entire farm, among many other mental math problems.

Students and teachers enjoyed learning about Pioneer, the GR Summer Sacks Program, and of course, running a lemonade/treat stand. Students’ favorite parts were meeting the customers, learning about Pioneer, and of course making the Rice Krispie Treats / lemonade and participating in quality control!

If you would like to donate money or help with the GR Summer Sacks Program, please contact Angie Thesing at 310.231.0326, or donations can be given at LSB in Reinbeck % GR Summer Sacks Program.