Open For Business

Last week I wrote about my incredible brainstorm, starting up a weather store.  The best part was putting the kids in charge of the store.  I introduced the thought to the kids and they were thrilled.  We wrote a letter to parents asking for help to stock our shelves with inventory.  When our next Wacky Wednesday rolled around we had bags of good to organize and place.

If you have ever tried to be create a space with a group of 16 kinders, you understand that chaos will ensue. I like to refer to it as controlled chaos.  In order to keep me from losing my mind I set up committees.  As an adult, committees don't typically excite me, but you should have seen the ownership these kids took for their assigned work.  We had the following committees:  sorting inventory, making price tags, creating a store sign, and labeling the categories of inventory.  They were engaged, chatting with each other and making decisions about they best way to create their store.  As our time ended, the kids were thinking of all the different roles they could play in the store:  shopper, cashier, and assistant.  I can't wait to watch them enjoy what they have created.

Building a Winter Store

It always happens over Christmas vacation.  I have a few days of calm, time to think.  Schemes and designs dance in my head as I plan and plot for my kinders in the new year.  The housekeeping area is played.  I'm sick of seeing plastic leaf lettuce languish beneath the table.  It's time to shake things up.  So I ponder and stir.

My math curriculum calls for finding numbers in the environment and recognizing two digit numbers.  My science bend will be about weather and winter.  The kids need to be writing informational texts.  We will be reading pattern books.  How can I create a play area to tap into at least some of these goals?  Then it hits. I am going to create a Weather Store.  That's right.  I will make a store of tools, clothes and other goods one might buy to contend with the weather.

Unfortunately, this brainstorm came to me 24 hours before vacation ended.  There was no time for me to create a visually exciting and purposeful play store before the wee ones returned.  This was too interesting a concept to let go, so I chose to give it over to the kids.  I secured a cash register from a generous colleague and set it up for the kids to see as they came in this morning.  They had  a great time exploring what it would do.  I hinted at the idea of creating a store that would help people deal with the weather.  Then I closed my mouth.

Tomorrow is our "Wacky Wednesday," a day given over to project based learning.  We will create a list of all the types of weather our Earth experiences.  Then we will come up with an inventory list to start up our store.  Kids will need to make advertisements and a banner with the name we decide on for our store.  Price tags will be created.  Products will be sought for with a letter the kids draft to their families.  This will be owned by the kids.  I'm thinking it's going to be far more fun than doing it for them over vacation.  Stay tuned for our progress.