Creative Marketplace
By Julie Matuszewski; photos courtesy of Gina Luber
Timber Trail Elementary (TTE) second grade students became entrepreneurs for a day with the project-based learning unit called marketplace. The unit incorporated communication and differentiation by providing the students a choice in the product they created. Students were challenged to use inquiry and critical thinking while they learned basic economics concepts.
Using learned economic vocabulary and the fundamentals of developing a business, each student created a product line that would appeal to TTE first graders. Individual displays of fossils, holiday joke books, stress balls, painted rocks, paracord bracelets, lava lamps, bookmarks and more lined the market tables.
Second graders worked hard at selling out of their inventory. Making all their holiday purchases, first grade friends had fun spending fake money. All the businesses ran a smooth and successful booth. The two top sellers were Brilliant Bracelets from Llana Bove’s class and Ornament Monsters from Wenda Wilson’s class.
Second grade business owner Tate Bush (left) assists first grade shopper Carter Bitz with his joke book purchase.
