Real math: $1,500 to 1,000,000 people

A postscript to a posting two weeks ago about the Haiti fundraiser:

During our February assembly this past week, Coralie Matayoshi, executive director of the Hawaii American Red Cross spoke to the students about the significance of their fundraising efforts. She expressed her admiration and appreciation to our students, especially the students in Torry Montes' multiage third and fourth grade class who spearheaded and organized the fundraiser. $1,500 raised in one day from a bake sale and collections at the autoline is impressive, yes! But even more amazing was the fact that the $1,500 will be enough money to provide clean water to a million people in Haiti! That's $1,500:1,000,000 people. I told the children that I was going to be much more mindful about spending even $5 at a fast-food drive-thru. Imagine, I told the attentive audience, how many people could be supported with just $5. Ms. Matayoshi presented Ms. Montes' class with a certificate of appreciation. To further extend their inquiry, the students in Ms. Montes' class will be visiting the American Red Cross headquarters at Diamond Head to gain a deeper understanding about how this international relief agency operates.  


Check out the PE blog written by faculty member, Pam Jenkins, who organized the annual Jump-Rope-for-Heart event last week. She has posted details of the event and information about the total amount raised for the American Heart Association, another significant non-profit group.  

Ms. Bailie's multiage first-and-second graders raised our awareness about protecting Hawaii's coral reef at the assembly. This presentation featured a slide show made with Kidpix and images downloaded from the Internet. The group of four children explained the symbiotic relationship between the living coral reef and the endangered species living in and around the coral reefs. They provided a few ways to protect the coral reefs, such as not to overfish or to avoid dumping chemicals and industrial waste into the ocean.  Had you attended this presentation, you would have agreed with me that the students were animated, confident, and knowledgeable about their research. Their inquiry is one example of many equally inspiring inquiries conducted by the first-and-second graders in the other multiage classes.   

We celebrate our grandparents, our kupuna, this Friday, February 26, at the preschool/elementary. Our guests will visit classrooms for curriculum sharing by the students, and then attend a special program in the auditorium. I'll recap the event in next week's web posting, along with photos.  As a fairly new grandparent, I can appreciate the strong interest that so many of our MPI grandparents have in their grandchildren's lives, including the special community in which their grandchildren learn.  Just wondering who'll be the oldest grandparents this year and who'll be traveling the farthest?

For our children and grandchildren,

Edna L. Hussey
Principal