Wednesday, October 7, 2009

tales from the classroom: patriots and starbucks

My kids this year are hilarious. Smart, sassy, sarcastic, and hilarious.

I have a thing I like to do involving a classroom economy. Each student gets paid weekly for doing jobs, as if they were each on the job site every day. They get money for coming to school, for completing tasks correctly the first time, and for classroom jobs (we have a bulletin board for different jobs the kids can apply for). They also pay money for optional supplies or extra supplies that they have depleted (ie pencils they lost or markers that ran out of ink).

On the first week of school, I allow each student to create a money template that we'll use all year, and then the class votes on the one they like the best. Usually, I get pictures of whatever our school's mascot is. Being the Patriots, I recieved the expected bills with pictures of flags, patriot soldiers, eagles, and other patriotic emblems. One student, though, drew a simple shooting star on the front of his dollar, and sarcastically called it a "star buck." Of course, this one won the vote, so our new classroom currency is in Starbucks.

Har har har.