A Day of Wonder

Wonder was what I felt all day at the girls' school the other day.  The third grades had Market Day, a day devoted to a real life lesson in economics.  Each third grader ( 8-9 years old) researched a product or service to produce themselves and sell on this day.  They worked up a plan, they made their product or offered a service, and offered it for sale to the entire student body in 2 hours. The kids made posters advertising their product, made flyers to hang up around the school alerting the student body to their product,  decorated their booth and talked up their product or service.  There was a lot of parent help and even some grandmas.

There was everything from popcorn, brownies, minion rice krispy treats, grab bags, necklaces and bracelets, bookmarks, lemonade, stress balls, chocolate covered pretzels, puddings, silly putty, cookies, magnets, felt purses and pins, lip balm, one boy was giving guitar lessons, you could take a turn at a  game of chance,  there were even a couple of baby goats to pet (for a price!) As the kids made a sale they put a tally mark on their 'sales sheet.'

 I was astounded at the variety of  goods offered and all for sale at increments of 25 cents.  This made the money changing much easier.  Three of us were money changers and we were busy!  The customers came with any amount from $1 to $20 to spend and they needed quarters to do that.  You can see at the lower left of this first picture our money table.  All monies earned from this day were to be donated to a charity the classroom supports.  I was astounded at the amount at the end of the day!

Elizabeth's teacher started this endeavor a few years ago in the classroom using play money but it soon grew to something all third graders could and should take part in and now it's something the whole school looks forward to.  She puts an enormous amount of work into this day, and a sleepless night of worry the night before.  But you sure couldn't tell that by watching the day unfold.  It was seamless.

 Elizabeth is a tactile, detail oriented person and she made animals of clay.  She made 30 and sold 20 so that's not a bad showing!  I bought that cute little bumble bee sitting on the table on the left.  It's sitting on my computer screen right now.   A nice little reminder of a day of Wonder.