Economics, Part I

Hello teacher friends! I am sorry for my absence; we have had an extremely busy (and fun!) first week back from spring break. We have spent the last few weeks learning about Economics, and on Wednesday, the third grade hallway turned into a market place! Our students made a product at home over spring break, and then brought their products to school to sell! All the kids in the school come to our "stores" to shop, and our students were responsible for creating an advertisement for their product, making change (the shoppers were spending REAL money!), counting their money at the end of the day, and calculating their profit. This is one of my most favorite third grade activities because of how exciting, engaging, and meaningful it is. Our class had the highest profit out of the 4 third grade classes, and the money we earned will go towards our end of the year field trip. Here are some pictures of our transformed classroom:

Each student had table space to set up their "store."

The nail painting "salon" (the only service sold in our class) and Angry Bird pet rocks.

Clay art and cookie brownies (whipped cream was an extra 25 cents!).

So many shoppers in my classroom!

Some of the products my kids made were glow in the dark slime, key chains, cookies, hair accessories, bracelets, necklaces, pipe cleaner rings, and duct tape wallets, just to name a few! Before Market Day happens, most students have difficulty understanding what it means to make a profit, but after the big day, they really get how businesses work - they understand that, to make a bigger profit, they must keep their expenses low, set a fair price, and make enough of their product that they don't sell out immediately, but not so many that they're left with a bunch of leftovers. They realized that the person who had the most money at the end of the day wasn't going to necessarily have earned the highest profit (and in fact, that was the case - the student with the most money at the end of the day actually only made about a $10 profit because their at home expenses were so high!). 

I have so many fun Economics lessons I want to share with y'all, but right now, most of what I created for this unit is very customized for my class and my school, so I want to tweak a few things to make them more useable for everyone before I share them. Check back in a few days to see if you can use any of the great activities and lessons for your own Economics unit!