Buyers and Sellers

Last week, we finished up our big social studies unit on economics. The kiddos have been working hard for  the past few weeks learning all about buyers, sellers, factories and businesses, advertisements, currency, and much, much more! It was a pretty intense study, but I don’t even think that they realized how detailed the information was, because they were way too busy having fun!

We completed our unit by having the students put their new learning to good use through a project-based learning project. The students designed a business that would appeal to a first grade audience. We had some very creative ideas and had the perfect mix of both goods and services. The students then designed advertisements and commercials to display and broadcast to our firstie buddies. In addition to the business creation, our kids were also in charge of designing a currency which the first graders worked to earn through good behavior and work in their classroom. Finally on Friday, we set up the classroom “business style” and the firsties came to purchase their favorite goods and services! It was such a rewarding experience for the students and they really learned the value of proper planning and good customer service.

Here are a few pictures from our afternoon.

Here is a look at the currency that the students designed. {Who is that historical hero on the $5 bill? I should have been the $10, but I guess our principal was MVP for our currency!} Ha!

 

Here are the girls behind “Fashion Story”. The duct tape bracelets were a hit! They were our highest profit of the day!

Our St. Pat’s Day cookies and green lemonade! {Funny story: The “boss” of this little business kept raising the price with each customer. I heard him charge one little 7 bucks for a cookie! I thought I would die! It was super cute and oh so funny! We had to have a little chat about maintaining consistent pricing! Can we say money hungry???…sheesh!}

One of the services for the day was origami lessons. I was a little worried about whether or not my kids would actually teach the firsties! I should know better than to underestimate my little darlings! They were amazing!

Another big money maker was Super Star Nails! They made the MOST adorable commercial that featured some pretty big names in the celebrity world!  Oh the power of persuasion! They are scary good at that!  :)

AND…finally at the end of the day…it was all about profit! The students divided the money equally and spent some time shopping around the room as well!

This will definitely be a yearly event!

This week, we are into all things measurement and loving some poetry. I am putting the finishing touches on two new units and hope to have them up by the weekend! Here is a peek!

7 school days until SB! :)