January = Farmer's Market

At my school, we have a progressive curriculum. Part of this is having a social studies unit that integrates all of the different subject areas. In second grade, we study "food, shelter, and clothing", and mapping. My kids have been studying food since the beginning of the year.

I was pretty nervous to lead a unit on food, since I have absolutely no idea about the food in Beijing. Where does it come from? What types of food is it? How is it made?
These are the questions that I was supposed to be facilitating the answers to. Riiiight.

Somehow, though, I got through it. We studied the canteen. I brought my kids back when they were cooking and cleaning. They interviewed the workers and thought about their lives without them.

We also studied Farmer's Markets. We took lots of trips there to sketch, talk to workers, and do research. Kelly had them make a model Farmer's Market in my room, which was so adorable I can't even explain.

Today, my students finished our study of food by running a real Farmer's Market out of our classroom. They designed the classroom and their stalls, made signs and maps in art (Also, thanks to Kelly!) and ran the whole thing themselves.

Overall, I ended up buying over $100 USD of fresh fruit, including 200 oranges, 120 bananas, 50 peppers, 80 carrots, 80 apples and 97 bags of sunflower seeds. All of the students and teachers in the school came by to support us, and we sold it all about about 20 oranges.

Most of their parents came in the morning, and seemed really into it. They were haggling with them and trying to get the prices down or to be convinced it was worth it. I think that it really helped with their own understanding of progressive ed.

It was great to see them writing receipts and trying to convince people to buy their "fresh" "juicy" fruits and vegetables. So adorable!