Third-graders at Maire Elementary School hosted a mini-society market day Tuesday and Wednesday as a wrap-up project to their social studies economics unit. Before creating their products to sell, students conducted a market survey and research.
“They asked their classmates: Would they buy the product?” third-grade teacher Danielle Miller said. “How much would they be willing to pay for the product? Based on that, some of them went back to the drawing board and maybe tweaked their product or did a different activity based on the interests of their classmates.”
Students paid for their classmates’ products using Bear Bucks earned by taking responsibility around the classroom or doing classroom jobs, Miller explained. Given a choice of video or posters, they then used Bear Bucks to create their advertising. It was up to them to create a budget.
“Bigger advertisements cost more money; smaller advertisements cost less,” Miller said. “They had to make a decision based on how many Bear Bucks they earned, what they wanted to spend their money on. Do they choose to do advertising? Do they choose not to and why? Do they want to save their Bear Bucks for buying other products or do they want to really think about their products first?”
Examples of products included keychains, rubber band bracelets and necklaces, bookmarks, paper airplanes, cactus plants, masks, stress balls, sensory bottles, paper wallets, goldfish bowls, handsewn lucky charms, bath and shower bombs, inspirational drawings, sea clay and finger puppets.
Principal Ryan Francis had to stretch his Bear Bucks a long way to purchase as many of the third graders’ products as he could.
“I try to buy a little bit of everything because everyone has put in a lot of work,” he said, adding business appeared to be booming.
Miller designed a two-page activity sheet for students to reflect on their market day experience.
“Was their product in demand? Did they sell out? What could they improve upon? Was it their sales pitch? Was it their marketing? Should they have done different marketing? Was it too expensive?
“It’s been a lot of fun,” she said, adding she especially enjoyed seeing some of the quieter students shine.
“Because it was their product and their thing, seeing them come alive and actually be able to express what their interest was and why they did what they did, it’s kind of cool,” she said. “It allows them to have a voice.”
Connect to summer enrichment
Connect your children — incoming kindergarteners and up — with creative, engaging activities and projects in a wide variety of disciplines with SUMMER CONNECTION, the Grosse Pointe Public School System’s summer enrichment program.
In this free program open to all GPPSS families, teachers have custom designed courses that emphasize enrichment, inquiry and fun. The focus is recharging and engaging students while reinforcing essential skills for a successful return to school in the fall.
The program runs from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in four two-week sessions:
Connection Kickoff: June 22- July 1
Connection Enrichment 1: July 6-15
Connection Enrichment 2: July 20-29
Connection Enrichment 3: August 3-12
The Kickoff will be outdoor / kinesthetic themed, featuring workshops where K-12 students will be outdoors and learning a new skill or refining an existing one. Offerings will be a mixture of sports lessons and outdoor (non-athletic) experiences.
The Enrichment program will continue a summer camp feel with academic learning through interactive and hands-on projects. Each session will contain unique content. Elementary students will receive project-based enrichment in core content areas as well as a special each day, with the program running from 8:30-11:30 each day.
At the secondary level, students will have the opportunity to participate in one or two classes per day for each of the two-week sessions. Classes run from 8:30 to 9:55 a.m. and 10:05 to 11:30 a.m. GPPSS will offer a wide variety of highly engaging courses that break the traditional mold of school.
Program locations along with details on transportation will be announced after spring break, with class descriptions posted online in mid to late April.
For more information, contact 2021 GPPSS Summer Connection Directors Katherine Parent at parentk@gpschools.org and Kevin Shubnell at shubnek@gpschools.org.
Egg My Yard
The Easter bunny will have some special helpers this year to create a magical surprise for children Easter morning. Families who placed an order with North’s Student Association will have candy-filled plastic eggs hidden in their yards by SA members the night before Easter.
This fun and creative idea grew out of the earlier fundraisers student leaders planned, including Boo Bags at Halloween and Valentine Hug Boxes, according to SA President Caroline Stafford and SA senator Abby Simcox. The idea of an egg hunt introduces a more interactive component and the two, both seniors, decided to take the idea and run with it, according to faculty adviser Jonathan Byrne.
The group raised about $4,400, which they plan to use to offset the costs of Charity Week events April 26 to May 1, culminating with a community dog walk on Sunday, May 2, to benefit the Grosse Pointe Animal Adoption Society.
Families had the option to order 20, 50 or 100 eggs. The students even accommodated food restrictions by offering nut-free, gluten-free and vegan candy. Twenty-six drivers signed up to make the deliveries before sunset Saturday, April 3.
Every precaution was made to make the project as safe as possible, Caroline and Abby said. Abby even contacted the local police departments to alert them in case they received “calls about teenagers running around in yards.”
Filling 7,000 eggs was “a big task, but everyone in the building was super supportive of this event,” Caroline said. “People in the office were really helpful. NHS members could come down during their tutorials and they would get service hours. SA members would come down during lunch and help. It was all hands on deck so it was really cool to see.”
More on clubs
Adapting to a virtual world of competition has not stopped after-school teams in the district from exceling.
Destination Imagination
All three Grosse Pointe Destination Imagination teams participated in Michigan’s DI Regional Showplace and qualified for the state competition.
First and second graders Alison Dirkse, Ben Dykstra and Hannah Nyenhuis from Defer Elementary School’s Wiz Kids team participated in the Rising Stars, a non-competitive category, and performed their solution, “Critter’s Big Adventure.” They were coached by Courtney Dykstra.
Taking second place in the fine arts category were fourth graders Jack Dykstra, Zack Nyenhuis, Estella Raether, Ben Ryan and Emily Vassel from the Dueling Dogs team, also from Defer. The team is coached by Courtney Dykstra and Courtney Vassel.
Taking first place in the technical category were Alyssa Flores, Avery Jakubowski, Matthew Jakubowski, Liam Raether and Daily Jogan from the Ticklish Turkeys, a combined Pierce Middle and Grosse Pointe South High schools team coached by Matthew Jakubowski.
DECA
Around 50 students joined Grosse Pointe South’s DECA team this year, with 25 students competing in the district competition and qualifying for states the week of March 8.
While accustomed previously to in-person practices and meets, the virtual format “did not stop our students from shining,” faculty adviser Erin Moretz said.
Below are the results of the state competition:
Finalists: Hayden Barry, Sean Clarke, Lloyd Dennis, Tommy Drawbaugh, Regan McDonald, Sophie Schuetze and PJ Wortman
Test medals: Regan McDonald and Sophie Schuetze
Role play medal: Hayden Barry
Oral medal: Regan McDonald
Due to their combined overall scores, Hayden Barry and Regan McDonald qualified for the international competition, which will take place in May.
Quiz Bowl
Grosse Pointe North’s Quiz Bowl team, coached by Ben Henri, competed in early March against teams from all across the country in four virtual matchups. North placed third out of 16 teams in this online tournament, qualifying for the National Academic Quiz Tournament nationals in May. Junior Noah Dean was the sixth highest scoring player in the tournament.
Tournaments use Discord, an audio and video chat platform, according to team captain Stephen Barstys, a senior.
“While it is unfortunate that we have been unable to have in-person matches, this online format has served as an effective substitute,” Stephen said. “A typical virtual match is similar to an in-person competition as the moderator will read a question and both teams are able to buzz in at any point.”
The difference is the participants type “buzz” in the text chat on Discord and the reader then hears a response.
“These virtual tournaments have allowed us to compete against a variety of teams, some of which are from out of state,” Stephen added. “As a result, we are able to challenge ourselves with a variety of competition and grow as a team.”
While Noah said the tournaments feel less like an event in the online format and he misses the interaction with teammates and opponents, the Quiz Bowl format actually translates well online.
Practices, too, have been conducted virtually. Outside of class, Noah said he does a lot of broad-based reading to expand his knowledge.
“I’m a big fan of arts and literature especially,” he said. “That’s my bread and butter.”
This is his third year on the team.
Stephen, who has competed all four years of high school, said he joined the team to expand his knowledge of history and geography and improve his skills. Both he and Noah participated in Social Studies Olympiad at Parcells Middle School previously.
“Quiz Bowl at North differed from my experience in middle school because at the high school level, the topics covered are not just from social studies but rather from a diverse range of subjects,” Stephen said. “Some of these areas include literature, science, art and pop culture. This was particularly appealing because it was a way for me to expand my mind and build upon my knowledge.”
Stephen added he has gained a more comprehensive understanding of the world as a result of the experience, allowing him to view history and current events through “an informed lens.”
“Seeing this growth not only within myself but also among my teammates has been incredibly fulfilling,” he said.
Interact Food Drive April 10
South's Interact Club is hosting a drive-through food drive from 10-11 a.m., Saturday, April 10, in the parking lot of Grosse Pointe Memorial Church, 16 Lakeshore, Grosse Pointe Farms. Club advisor Kevin Cox said they are partnering with Grosse Pointe Rotary to host the event. Food donations will help the Second Mile Center and The Community Tree House. Watch social media for a reminder closer to the event and a list of suggested donations.
April Fool’s!
Pierce Middle School teachers were treated to donuts in the teachers’ lounge — and an April Fool’s Day joke a few days early.
Filling Tim Horton’s boxes on the table was an array of assorted donuts that looked too tempting not to eat. A note on the table clarified the ceramic donuts made by sixth graders in Jane Plieth’s art class were for the teachers’ “optical pleasure” — and would likely crack a sweet tooth — while the store-bought ones in plastic containers were for consumption.
On a more serious note, two eighth graders won 2021 Scholastic Arts awards for their digital artwork. Alexandra Lindsay won a Silver Key for “Safe Space” and Mei Satler earned Honorable Mention for “The Outstandingly Unremarkable Spread of Fake News.”
Blackout poetry at Parcells
Art teacher Madeline Thompson found a creative use for discarded books from the Parcells library. Her sixth graders tore out pages from these books to create blackout poetry. A blackout poem is when a poet takes a marker to already established text and redacts words until a poem is formed. The key with a blackout poem is that the text and redacted text form a sort of visual poem.
The results speak for themselves.
“He fought the woods for seven years,” Camden Baker wrote.
From Matthew Eshman: “I desire to depart cheerfully with mysteries.”
From Nicholas Malouf: “He suffered upon demands of his enemies.”
And finally, from Maggie Dionisopoulos: “The full moon shone down upon the sky / It was magical / And all stars shining above.”
Thompson, a first-year teacher, introduced the activity last semester in a remote format, with students using newspaper clippings rather than the pages of books.
“They absolutely loved it last semester,” she said. “They loved it this semester too.”
While students who were less confident in their writing skills questioned whether it was an English or art assignment, “they ended up loving it,” Thompson added. “They all did a good job coming up with their own meaning out of the text.”
For students who initially struggled, she encouraged them to read the page backwards so they could pick up on the words unimpeded by the overall meaning of the passage.
The depth of their poetry “blew me out of the water,” she said.
The show must go on
Brownell Middle School’s drama club is taking a different approach to give its theatrically inclined students a much-needed outlet, according to choir and drama teacher Carolyn Gross.
The community was invited to the premiere of the drama club’s production of “The Show Must Go Online,” a virtual musical, Thursday on YouTube. Two video productions featuring the white cast and the blue cast, each running about a half hour, are available for viewing.
A virtual play on real kindness
Anne Flanagan’s fourth graders at Ferry Elementary School created a virtual play, with all speaking parts and songs recorded. Parent Joe Genest took the clips and produced a 19-minute video complete with an opening, background and credits. The title of the play is The Theme Challenge and the focus is kindness and standing up for others.
School Pointes is a publication of the Grosse Pointe Public School System. To submit story ideas or Pointes of Pride, email info@gpschools.org.