Lemonade Stand

It has been ages since I have updated my teaching blog, and so much has happened over the past few months.  Spring has sprung on Haida Gwaii, although we do have the occasional snow fall that melts away by the morning.  Crocuses have begun sprouting and there are tiny buds on the salmonberry bushes around our school.  Last month, when it was still fairly cold, my students came up with an idea to sell lemonade to help raise money for the World Wildlife Fund.  They decided that the lemonade stand should be on wheels so that we could push it around the fishing docks, because "fisherman would be the most thirsty".  The children were very excited to bake cookies and try making lemonade from scratch.  The following afternoon, we baked oatmeal coconut chocolate chip cookies, whipped shortbread and coconut mango muffins, and made two large batches of lemonade.  We added mint leaves to the first jug, and frozen blackberries to the second, which to our surprise, turned the lemonade a beautiful shade of pink!  We picked some berries and branches from trees in the yard, blew up some balloons, made some signs advertising our goodies, and packed up our wagon.  The sun was shining and the sky was bright as we headed over to set up shop outside the grocery store after some thought and discussion.  Our first generous customer, the wonderful Jo, stopped us on her bicycle before we had even set up our wagon, and donated $5 for a cookie!  Some of the children took initiative with the cash box and really enjoyed making change, while others preferred to draw pictures in the sunshine.  By the end of the afternoon, everyone took turns helping and we had lots of friendly visitors stop by and say hello.  We counted our funds when we returned to the school and were very pleased to find out that we raised $72 for our cause!  The following week we learned that a 15 year old girl from our community had fallen ill and the children decided to donate the lemonade stand money to her instead.  I was so proud of them for taking initiative and also recognizing that you need to be flexible when someone in our community is in need.