This post comes to us from Kelly Hogan, second grade teacher at Durbin Elementary. It’s a great example of 21st century learning in action – Students were given voice and choice. They pooled their ideas and discussed options. They practiced creative decision planning. This ‘lesson’ was authentic and relevant – it’s never too early to learn to budget! #meaningfullearning

From Mrs. Hogan (3/25/16):

Our school’s student council planned a spirit day.  Students were allowed to wear their favorite college wear and bring a $1 donation.  Donations this month came right back to the classroom for supplies.  We raised $24 as a class.

I decided that the students should have a voice in what items were purchased.  Students started by creating a list of items that they were interested in purchasing with the money.  We then narrowed this list down by voting on which items we were most interested in.  Our list was down to 5 items at this time.  We then looked up a game we were interested in and learned that it would eat nearly all of our budget; they swiftly eliminated that from their list!  Groups of students took the remaining four items.  They “shopped” for the items online.  After some time they realized that shipping was going to eat a lot of their budget.  I shared that I was an Amazon Prime member and they determined that, even though their items may be a $1 or $2 more on Amazon,  the shipping costs elsewhere were more than that.  Each student group found an item to present to the class for purchasing.  Each student calculated the total cost of the 4 items.  They then determined the amount we needed to cut from our current wish list.  We were able to get our purchase to $0.21 under our budget!  They are INCREDIBLY excited for their purchases to arrive!

From Mrs. Hogan (3/28/16):

Our purchases have arrived!

Mechanical pencils for all!