Today was one of those magical days at preschool. I came with the seed of an idea, and the time was just right for planting! This will be long, but so worth it, especially if you love to see awesome kids: doing great things in a classroom,making a difference in their world, engaged in MEANINGFUL learning experiences, taking part in team work, brainstorming, learning economics, collaborating, fully engaged in purposeful play, on task, working at their pace, on their level, being pushed just a bit beyond, using their God given talents, creativity, and imaginations.
Background: Each year our 4s adopt an organization to give gifts to in lieu of a
traditional gift exchange. This is part
of how we build our understanding of our place in the world and
how we can be good, helpful citizens. This year we will be helping our friends at Sleep Tight
Kids. This North Carolina based
organization collects money or bed-time related items, including clothing,
blankets, toys and books for needy families.
The goal of the group is to promote feelings of comfort and hope in
children as they lay their heads to rest at night. Each child will have an opportunity to give from home, this project is just an extra effort to add to our contributions.
During circle time this morning, after a devotion about how we can give Jesus a present by being kind to others, I pitched my idea: Let's raise some money to buy items for our charity. Together we brainstormed a list of things we could do to make money, then we ruled them out one-by-one. Too cold for lemonade stand or a car wash. No customers to buy hot chocolate. No stuff for a yard sale. No one except JJ that we could just plain ask for money from :)
I suggested we could try making and selling reindeer food. They loved the idea (thank goodness) and immediately put a plan on paper. First we had to determine what reindeer like to eat. We found out with a little research that they are ruminants and herbivores. They like to eat plant matter. Then we brainstormed a list of possible ingredients and determined which would be the most shelf stable. We decided on oats for fiber, corn for energy, raisins for a tasty fruit, puffed brown rice for good measure, and magic flying dust, well because after all, it IS reindeer food! We had everything on hand except for the corn. We called in Mr. Nate who brought us a bucket. Of course we had to pay for the item, because we all know it takes money to make money. I asked around if anyone had a money and several quickly remembered the money we had produced a few weeks ago and gladly paid Mr. Nate with our home made money.
Now that our ingredients were in place, we had to make a plan of how we were going to get our product processed and packaged. One little voice popped up with "We can do teamwork". And that is how we got our assembly line going.
It took a little practice, but in minutes we had a good line going. The children were helping one another and being very careful.
The children encouraged one another and began to fill the packages quickly. After they made 10 bags, it was time for shift change.
The new crew was trained by the old crew and a foreman stayed behind to make sure the change was seamless.
While the assembly line was going, we had a product development team working on packaging.
They did an amazing job designing the labels that we stuck on every bag.
During our planning meeting, we decided we would need a place to sell the reindeer food. JJ said we could do it in the lobby. C jumps up and announces that his mom has a lemonade stand that was used at his baby sister's 1st birthday party and that it would be perfect for selling reindeer food. Boy was he right! It was perfect, and this is his reaction when his mom agreed to bring it to us at school right away!
Once we designed the stickers for the bags, I coped them onto label paper.
Then the boys and girls cut them out. They stuck them on the bags and folded the tops down.
Then we added toppers and sealed them up.
The second phase of production was marketing. P said "We need to make posters".
Today for our writing lesson, we generated a list of things that people would need to know about our product if they wanted to buy it. Completely independently, they noted that people would need to know what it was, where they could buy it, how much it costs, and why they would need it.
It just so happened that our popcorn work for the week was FOR. Perfect!
I left the words For Sale on the board for those who were going to copy the message and draw a picture. We worked one on one with students who wanted to write their own messages, using the sounds we know and can write.
This sign than M made sums it nicely. " For Sale: Reindeer Food. $1.00. Fresh food for Every Reindeer." What more could you ask for???
We learned how to make the symbol for dollar, and we talked about describing words: adjectives.
Some signs promise "Fresh" food, some "Yummy", others share the message that if you want "Happy Reindeer" this is the food for you.
By the end of the day our perfect reindeer food stand had arrived. The kids all spilled out of the room and began to post their posters on it. They were SO proud and immediately began to make some sales. We were left with the question of where to store the proceeds. They thought a piggy bank was appropriate and we did too. We don't have one of those at school, but will tomorrow. For now we operate on the honor system and a tin can.
Tomorrow we will count our money and learn a little more about America's currency. I expect there will be questions about how much we have, how many quarters make a dollar, and why are 5 dimes less than 1 paper dollar??? I honestly look forward to finding out what they have to say, and hearing their thoughts on our project.
So, when I said it was magical, it was for me. The brilliance of these little people amazes me each day. I love opportunities like these where children can show what they know without worksheets, flashcards, never ending assessments, and being told what to learn.
