Bonsall Elementary third graders hold Market Day

BONSALL – On May 29, a class of third graders at Bonsall Elementary School led by teacher Carla Edwards held their third annual event entitled “The Market @ 605.”

“The Market @ 605” is an activity to complement the students’ final social studies unit on economy. Students had to come up with a product (craft or snack) to sell to their peers. The students had to design a sign, make, package, and sell their product. Each student was responsible for bringing in 30 items for their booth.

Other third grade classes and parents were invited to “shop” with play money distributed at the entrance to the market. In order to spur competition and mimic the real marketplace, the play money was limited to $5 per shopper, causing the students to have to compete for those limited “dollars.” In addition to the 26 student-vendors in Edwards’ class, a total of 36 adult shoppers and just over 150 student shoppers were able to participate in this educational event.

Some of the products featured at the market included food items such as snacks, fruit kabobs, chocolate-dipped fruit, oranges, and an assortment of cookies, as well as crafts like goo, clay, notepads, bracelets, stationary, bookmarks, hand-woven mini rugs, hand-drawn journals, comic books, Lego figure crayons, and an instruction manual on how to draw airplanes. Top sellers during the market were Greg’s Goo and Madeline’s Bracelets – both sold out during the event.

Edwards’ stated goal in assigning this unit was to teach organization, teamwork, marketing, customer service, and responsibility.

At close of market, the students counted their ‘money’ and tallied profit and remaining inventory. The students were then permitted to spend some of their money at their classmates’ booths. They also had to pay ‘rent’ and put half of their earnings in savings. This opened up many discussions about jobs, responsibilities etc.

Some comments offered by the students included: “This was hard work but a ton of fun!” “I learned a lot.” “It was hard having to talk about my product, so people would buy it.” “I had a blast.”

“I loved everyone’s ideas.” “It was exciting when someone bought your product.” “Even though I didn’t sell all of mine, I still had fun.” “Can we do it again?”

Edwards finds this to be a valuable experience for the children and intends to continue the tradition.