{"id":16242,"date":"2020-01-15T15:14:41","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T21:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/?p=16242"},"modified":"2020-01-15T15:14:41","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T21:14:41","slug":"kindergartners-partner-with-kowalskis-market-to-make-an-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/2020\/01\/15\/kindergartners-partner-with-kowalskis-market-to-make-an-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Kindergartners Partner With Kowalski\u2019s Market To Make An Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kindergartenMounds Park Academy\u2019s service-learning process and partnership with Kowalski\u2019s Market is making an impact! It all began when\u00a0MPA kindergartners learned the letter \u201cT\u201d for \u201cturtles.\u201d They discovered that sea turtles are dying by mistaking plastic bags in their ocean habitat for food.\u00a0Then, they learned the word \u201cactivist\u201d for the letter \u201cA.\u201d Through responsibility, courage, and inclusiveness, they joined the Upper School students at a weekly morning meeting to message ways to save sea turtles. The kindergartners also composed a letter to Kris Kowalski, owner of Kowalski\u2019s Market, expressing their concern around plastic bags.<\/p>\n

In their letter, the kindergartners acknowledged positive things Kowalski\u2019s Market is already doing to make a difference in the community. Kowalski\u2019s displays signage in their parking lots reminding customers to bring their reusable bags from the car, and they give five cents back to the customer for each reusable bag.\u00a0Kris responded to the students\u2019 letters, sharing more helpful information about their cause. The students learned more about consumer choices and individual responsibility for taking care of our environment. She included the Kowalski\u2019s \u201cBreakdown of the Bags\u201d to help them be informed consumers.<\/p>\n

MPA students develop academic, social, and life skills through the design thinking process. Therefore, the kindergarten class decided to make their reusable grocery bags in the Makerspace to be sold Kowalski\u2019s Market. As the first step, kindergartners saw several prototype canvas bags and shared observations about the value in each bag. They carefully looked at the designs and sizes to determine which would be best for the consumer. After being donated canvas fabric and materials, they were ready to begin making their bags!<\/p>\n

MPA fifth graders helped out their younger peers by sewing each canvas bag in the Makerspace. This activity was connected to their Middle School service as well.\u00a0Through friendship and cooperation, kindergarten and fifth grade buddies hand-illustrated the \u201cSave the Turtles\u201d message on each bag.<\/p>\n

The reusable bag sales have been going remarkably well, as many Kowalski\u2019s customers either pick up a bag of their own or make a donation to the cause. “I met some wonderful people while I stood by the cash registers holding a big stuffed turtle and several bags,” said kindergarten teacher Kristine Petersen. “It was fun watching them select which bag to purchase. In fact, one customer couldn’t decide between two bags, so she bought them both! So much joy!”<\/p>\n

Last year, the MPA Upper School science department visited Costa Rica and discovered a sea turtle refuge. The money collected from the bag sales at Kowalski’s will be donated to the \u201cSee Turtles\u201d organization to help save sea turtles and improve ocean life. With every step, this project epitomizes the MPA learning environment and their desire to partner with their communities to make a difference in our world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mounds Park Academy\u2019s service-learning process and partnership with Kowalski\u2019s Market is making an impact! It all began when\u00a0MPA kindergartners learned the letter \u201cT\u201d for \u201cturtles.\u201d They discovered that sea turtles are dying by mistaking plastic bags in their ocean habitat for food.\u00a0Then, they learned the word \u201cactivist\u201d for the letter \u201cA.\u201d Through responsibility, courage, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":16347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,26,28,24,29,9,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admission","category-blog","category-current-families","category-featured-posts","category-homepage","category-lower-school","category-middle-school","category-upper-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16242"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16348,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16242\/revisions\/16348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}