When we started our economics unit, our lessons were focused on how people make money- by providing a good or a service, and also what people use money for- to buy things we need or want. We discussed the differences between a need and a want. We also read a book that was very impactful: "The Lemonade Ripple" by Paul Reichert. We invited in Isaac Snyder, a 5th grader, who runs his own egg business to talk to the class about how he came up with the idea and the work he puts into his business.
I wanted to find a way for the students to put all this information into action. After a brainstorming session with Mason and Ellie, we came up with the idea of a classroom cookbook. I talked to the class about it, and they were so excited!
We gathered our recipes and added a personal touch by having students write and illustrate how they'd like to make money some day and what they would do with it. We also made posters to advertise our cookbook and hung them all over the school.
From the very beginning, we stated our goal was to use the profit to buy something for our classroom and to help a family. Our original goal was to sell 40 cookbooks. We couldn't have imagined how fast the sales would take off. So many students, both elementary and high school, teachers, some community members, came pouring into our classroom excited to support our project. With every sale, we cheered and added the numbers to our growing spreadsheet of sales. Every day we updated the number of cookbooks sold and the total profit. We decided as a class that our cut off day would be on the same day as Books for Breakfast, so it would be about a 3 week selling period. Our final sales ended with a total of 191 cookbooks sold with a profit of $205.30!
I told the class that bringing in this amount of a money lends itself to a big responsibility of how to best spend it. Our first step was to decide how much we wanted to set aside to help a family. Once that money was set aside, we brainstormed ideas for what we need for our classroom. We ultimately decided on new pencils with erasers. With this purchase, each student was able to get 4 new pencils and a large pink eraser. We then brainstormed ideas for what we want for our classroom. The class decided they wanted to add new pillows to our window bench that the students use throughout the day to make their reading and writing more cozy. They also wanted to order books from our Top 20 Countdown.
As a class we went on Amazon to look at pillow ideas, and I also presented the prices of all the top 20 books. We had to pick and choose what we really wanted to fit into our budgeted amount. We bought 4 new pillows and 7 new books. With each purchase, we went online together and counted the money out of our box to make the payment.
Our final purchase was at Pedal Pushers. We chose this business to buy a gift card from to give to a family in our community. Yesterday we walked down there to take a tour and learn about their business. Angie and Scott Taylor did an awesome job teaching the students about owning your own business. It was so interesting to hear about how their business runs, the number of customers they serve, and how Pedal Pushers came to be. Thank you so much to Angie and Scott!
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