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Mills Elementary School Students Learn Economic Lessons

Posted on: Saturday, 17 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By Laura Figueroa, The Bradenton Herald, Fla., The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

Dec. 17--PARRISH -- What do you call a man who steals a lot?

Drew Allender, 8, can give you the answer, but it's going to cost you.

Friday morning third-grade students at Virgil Mills Elementary transformed the school cafeteria into the Mills Mountain Lion Mall. Using cardboard boxes as their store fronts, the students learned valuable lessons in economics, savings and customer service.

"What color box do you want?" Allender asked a fellow student who forked over the $3 of paper play money for a box of "Jokes for Folks."

By 10 a.m. Allender had sold 15 of the palm-sized boxes stuffed with scraps of papers that had jokes typed onto them.

Six weeks ago each third-grade class formed a company and designed a product they could sell. They also created advertisements for their products.

"It motivates them to learn," said principal Mike Rio , who did some holiday shopping of his own, buying a sun-catcher and gift bag with play money. "If they're excited about what they're learning, they will continue to ask questions, and engage in the learning process. You can just feel the energy level here."

Belting from the top of her lungs, Sarah Davis , 10, knew that when it comes to sales, customers are attracted to no lines, no wait.

"No lines over here," Davis told other students as they passed by, slowly customers started to trickle by her shop.

Third-grade teacher Kelly Gavin said for six weeks, planning for the mall has held her students' attention. They even created gimmicks to sell the most products, such as including a free gift tag with the purchase of every gift bag.

"When you're older you get charged for stuff," said Harloe Hunter , 9. "Until we get a real job, we're learning how to spend money and how to work with people."

Though lava lamps (plastic soda bottles filled with water and glitter), and pet rocks were the hot commodities at the Mountain Lion Mall, many of the gifts had personal meaning to the students.

Daniel Barrera , 9, and his classmate Kaylee Kovacevic , 8 sold guardian angels made out of paper clips. With each angel came a written reminder.

"Don't drive any faster than your guardian angel can fly," said Barrera reading from the paper. "It's a reminder for our parents."

By 10:30 a.m., an hour and a half after the mall opened, the students hung up their "Closed" and "Out of Order" signs outside their makeshift store fronts, and headed back to class.

For those who couldn't make it to the Mountain Lion Mall, where debit cards and checks were of no use, the answer to Allender's joke: Robin.

Laura Figueroa, Herald reporter, can be reached at 708-7906, or at lfigueroa@HeraldToday.com [mailto:lfigueroa@HeraldToday.com].

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Bradenton Herald (Bradenton, Fla.)

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