A student and her mother choose items from the menu at the Italian Restaurant.

It was almost like movie magic; the hallways of Chatsworth School in Reisterstown were transformed from bustling classrooms to a real-life bakery, movie theater, arcade, Italian restaurant, craft store, and gym. This unusual learning opportunity on December 19, the school’s Market Day, culminated a unit in the second- and third-grade students’ in-depth study of economics. 

The Forest Team, a group of students ages 7 and 8 that is one of the teams that makes up Chatsworth School, helped build this mini-city from the ground up. Each student had the chance to share opinions about the types of stores that would provide the goods and services, choose where he or she wanted to seek employment, create the activities and items that would be available for the consumers, and then work and shop among the venues. The day consisted of two shifts where students were excited to be given the opportunity to use Forest Team bucks to purchase goods and services as consumers and also work in their chosen areas as active employees.

One student teaches another yoga stretches while working at Muscle Makers Gym.

For two weeks before Market Day, students immersed themselves in learning and applying economic concepts, such as the production and consumption of goods and services, scarcity, advertising, opportunity cost, and supply and demand. 

“I think the best part of this experience is being able to give the children a voice in choosing where they would like to focus their interests and learning,” said Michelle Ryan, a Forest Team teacher. “An in-depth study such as this allows the students to make real world connections to what they are learning in school.”

Second and third grade students prepare posters to advertise Market Day.

This sentiment was eagerly echoed by the students and parents on the team. A third grader said, “I think Market Day was a really good experience because everyone worked together to set up our ideas. It made a lot of money because we had things that people wanted, and we did a great job of creating a store.” 

Another student added, “I liked being a waitress in the Italian restaurant because it was fun, and it taught you what it was like to be working as a real employee.”

Parents agreed. One wrote to the school: “I just wanted to let all of you know how fabulous market day is for the students. [My daughter] told me this morning how she planned to delegate her $30 for activities, food, crafts, and a movie. What an appropriate lesson with the way the world is today.” 

Another wrote, “Many thanks to your wonderful second- and third-grade teachers and students for the amazing job they did on Market Day. We know that the students worked hard to make things like the SkeeBall game for the arcade, the ornaments for the craft shop, the cookies for the bakery, the pizza for the Italian restaurant, the popcorn for the movies, the stress balls for the gym, and so many other things! The teachers reworked their schedules and definitely risked going outside of the box with the students in order to allow them to experience learning economics in a meaningful way.”

Story by Lara T. Fruman, early childhood teacher and Good News Ambassador at The Chatsworth School. Photos courtesy of The Chatsworth School.

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