The Mall Is Open!

Last month, the children learned the basic principles of economics during our social studies unit.  They discovered the difference between goods and services and now understand what it means to be a producer, a seller, and a consumer and the relationship between the three.  To make the unit more interesting and include a "real-world" connection, we decided to plan the whole unit in a way that would culminate in a classroom "mall."  Knowing we would eventually be shoppers, we also integrated math by teaching the children about money... coin names, values, and combinations.  

We started out by showing the children several different products they could produce in their factories.  As teams, they decided which item they wanted to produce and set to work being producers for several days.  They learned about quality and consistency and later talked about pricing their items for sale in the classroom mall.

Team Spidey makes flower bouquets in their factory.

Team Thor gets creative making fun pencil toppers.

Team Ironman colors and paints pretty bookmarks.

Team Hulk works hard to produce play-dough in various scents... lemon and peppermint...

(and unscented, just in case you're sensitive).

A week later, the children were ready to learn about how to set up a store.  They brainstormed and agreed upon a store name and made signage for their store, including advertisements listing the price and showing how the item is used.

Kate, Mason, and Austin set up their store.  They are selling pencil toppers for 10¢ each.

Notice their advertisement they agreed on... "Buy one, get one free."  Cute.

Angelina, Sean, and Isabella are getting their bookmark store ready.  Deciding how to display your goods is very important work.  :)

"The Flower Shop" is open for business!

And Team America is selling "America's Cool Bracelets" for only 10 cents.  What an awesome deal!

Isabela and Grace made quite a bit of money selling their flowers.

Over the last several weeks, the children earned money for responsible behavior and for completing various tasks.  They kept their money in homemade "wallets" (envelopes) and exchanged smaller coins for larger coins at "the bank" once a week. (Nathan served as our banker... thanks, Nathan!)  Here, Bryson takes out the money he needs to buy one of the products in the mall.

Juan looks for the coins he needs to buy a bookmark from Team Ironman's store.

Isabella waits to see which bookmark Mason will buy.  Hmmm...

Wow... the "Butuful Bookmark" store is very popular.  (Check out their advertisement they made.)  The girls are busy with customers like Grace and Nathan.

At only 5¢ per bookmark, no wonder they're so busy!

Josiah sells Kate a few flowers from "The Flower Shop."

And the ladies at the bookmark shop are so sweet!

They even personalized Isaiah's bookmark for him to give to his mother.  :)

When you get a chance, sit down with your child and scroll through the pictures with them.  Ask them to tell you what they learned and what they enjoyed most from this integrated math and social studies unit.  What fun!