The Great Lemonade War

Do you ever have those moments when you say, "Next year!!"  (I'm guess alllll the time, because that's what good, reflective teachers do!)

Yesterday I shared information about our "Lemonade Day" Project tied with the book The Lemonade War.  NEXT YEAR, I want to step up our game by making this project extend beyond my little classroom.  And I discovered The Great Lemonade War, a charitable giving contest to raise money for childhood cancer.  How awesome is that?  Jacqueline Davies, the author is even affiliated.  Read an interview with her here.

All the money goes to Alex's Lemonade Stand, an awesome foundation helping kids who are fighting cancer.

And THAT is totally a great reason to get involved on its own, but the winning school also get a visit from Jacqueline Davies!

So next year we'll be asking for donations for sampling our tasty treats!  I'm excited already!

Lemonade Day

Tomorrow is Lemonade Day!  What is Lemonade Day, you ask??

Well, as part of our Economics unit, we read The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies.  In the book, Davies explains economic concepts as she tells the story of a brother and sister who compete to have the best lemonade stand in town.

 

As our own twist on the book, students create their own "lemonade" product.  They have to market it with a poster, logo, drink packaging, and commercials. 

 

We shared commercials today and they were ADORABLE.  Want to see one? 

 

 

Love the way he shows off his knowledge of a testimonial :)

Tomorrow we're sampling the drinks and voting on our favorites!  The winners will get one of these "mystery bags" with a certificate for LaRosa's pizza and some candy.  Thanks for ATP for reminding me that everything is always better when you put it in a "mystery bag!"  Ha!

ABC Economics

We're about to wrap up our last Social Studies unit of the year.  As a review, we played "ABC Economics."  For each letter of the alphabet, students had to list a term related to economics. 



First I gave the students about five minutes to see how many words they could come up with on their own.  Then I gave them about five more minutes to get with a buddy and add to their lists.  We share out and I was pleasantly surprised with all the terms they have learned.  The winners got reallllly close to being able to find one for each letter! 

The challenge was "X," for which we decided on "X boxes are scarce goods!"  Does that count? 

Bonus, every student said they did much better with this activity than they would have at the beginning of the unit.

It's a great informal assessment that could be used with many, many subjects.  Any good ideas?

How it's Made

I hope you've caught the Science Channel's show, "How It's Made."  I find it completely mesmerizing to see the process that makes so many everyday objects: from laundry machines to apple pies.

As part of our economics unit, we teach the concept of specialization.  In class we do a demonstration of specialization in an assembly line production, but I wanted to let the students see specialization by machines and people in action.

I'll share a few of my favorites with you.


1. Baseballs!  Did you know they take a week to make?

2. Crayons!  (Who doesn't remember the video from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood of the crayon factory?  Classic.  Here's the H.I.M. version.)

 

3. Who knew baseball gloves were SOOO labor intensive?  This one clearly shows how each worker has a unique role in the production process.

 

4. Donuts...I dare you to watch this and not get hungry!



There are so many more on the How It's Made website.  Consider me addicted.