Market Days & a party

University Park Elementary School holds an event called Market Days at the end of second grade. Each child comes up with a business plan for an item or service that they want to sell. If the kids choose to sell a product, they can create their own items or resell something made elsewhere. Examples of items for sale include homemade jewelry, hair bows, stickers, bookmarks, and notebooks. Examples of services can be telling a fortune or providing a massage. One group of classes sells to three other second grade classes for one hour, then the second group of classes sells to the first group of classes for one hour. Thus all the kids get to experience the roles of seller and buyer during the event. 

John decided to make rainbow loom bracelets for his Market Days product. He diligently created about 30 bracelets, all of which were different designs and colors. He called his booth "Rainbow Sport O' Loom" because each bracelet came with a free sports card. John declared that the free sports card was his competitive angle compared to the other two students in the class that were selling rainbow loom bracelets. It was fun to watch John devise his marketing strategy and make the bracelets, but I think he had more fun as a consumer. John proudly came home with two bags of junk products on Market Days, with items ranging from jewelry, sports cards, homemade silly putty to a bunch of other items that eight year-olds think are cool.

The day after Market Days was John's end of year class party. The entire class spent lunch and recess time outdoors at the park across the street. The kids enjoyed a pizza picnic lunch, snow cones from the Kona Ice truck, and games including the sack race and kickball. John is pictured second from the left in the back row in the photo below.

And finally, an end of the year picture of John with his beloved teacher, Mrs. Chabot. Mrs. Chabot was the perfect match for John this year, and he completely blossomed under her teaching and classroom management style.