JA Day 2016

We love Junior Achievement Day at our school! Basically, it's a day when professionals from the community come and teach social studies and economics standards to our kids. Each grade has different resources that are age appropriate, educational, and fun.

We were honored to have Ms. Lauren Kilman from UNUM come and be our teacher for the day. She did a great job and my students had a blast! We created a community, learned about earning money, and created a new restaurant while learning about start-up costs.

Thanks for coming, Ms. Lauren!

Junior Achievement Day 2013

Today was one of my favorite days of the year- Junior Achievement Day!! I love JA day! It's an entire day full of activities that I don't have to plan and are centered around a social studies standard. The third grade standard covered is on maps, commerce, and banking skills. I really appreciate that the skills are not only academic, but life skills also.
My class was lucky this year to have one of my friends be our JA representative. You might remember Mrs. Jana Kruse from the BIG PLANS segment last Saturday.

My students had lots of fun! You could tell Ms. Jana had previous practice in the classroom. :)

Here they are working on their "zoning" projects- creating their version of a perfect classroom. Students working in pairs, or triads. 

Students also learned the difference between residential, industrial, business, farming, and multipurpose zones. They created buildings and decided in which zone their building belonged.

One activity I didn't get pictures of was where students had to start their own business. They had to decide upon a restaurant concept, decide where to build, hire help, and advertise. *whew* My class had a good time, but you could tell they had never really thought about what goes on behind the scenes in a business.

Here are my students' writings from one of the last activities. Each student was assigned a section of the newspaper for which to write a story.

I really liked this activity. I might try this again when we review author's purpose.

When Ms. Jana left, we were sad to see her go. We decided to take some time to let her know that we appreciated all she taught us today.

Thank you, Ms. Jana for visiting us today!

Thank you, Junior Achievement for helping our community!

Day 117- Junior Achievement Day

The best day of the year!
Better than Christmas, JA Day is when volunteers from UNUM come and teach our students a lesson on community and economics.

I have only experienced JA Day as a second grade teacher, so this was a new experience for me in first grade. My favorite part of the JA experience is that the lessons prepared are based on Tennessee State Standards. Each lesson has 4-5 activities that keep students engaged and teach students about the importance of community and economics, while using educational vocabulary and using Best Teaching Practices.

Plus, I don't have to "teach" a thing! Everything is prepared, packaged, and brought to the classrooms! In other words... A.W.E.S.O.M.E!!!

Meet our "teacher" for the day... Mr. White!

Our topic was Our Families, and we touched on families, jobs, plans for the future, needs vs. wants, and map skills. Mr. White really connected with the kids. My students were eager to do the activities he brought and Mr. White certainly kept them engaged!

The lesson started with a booklet and stickers. Students read the booklet and placed the stickers where they matched.

 The booklets were colorful, easy to read and understand, and they rhymed! The last page (not pictured) was where students could write about a job they perform around the house, and add a picture of themselves doing the chore.

Next, Mr. White put up a poster of a community and had my class compare and contrast the poster with their communities. (And the poster matched the outside of our booklet!)

My class discussed the different jobs they saw being performed on the poster. Talking about jobs created a segue to things people buy with the money they earn from their job. From there, my students were lead into a discussion between needs and wants.

My students made this list of NEEDS:
Clothes, food, and a home (a place to stay warn and dry) I tried to add chocolate, but my students wouldn't let me.

Their list of WANTS:
Xbox 360, skates, pets, fancy clothes, and my chocolate

But, in order to buy our needs and wants, one must have a job. We talked about what our plans are for our future jobs. We made a list of possible occupations and students drew and wrote about where they see themselves at the ripe, old age of 25.

 Working hard!

Looking around, I found that I have quite a few future teachers in my classroom!

 Pointing out the school where she will work.

 

Below, we have a lawyer:

And a police officer:
(now, I usually don't condone drawings of violence, but the student explained that it's all in the line of duty)

When everyone was finished, we collected the pictures and created a book!

After this activity we went to lunch. After lunch and recess, we came back and worked on map skills.

Mr. White brought the students to the carpet and they talked bout building communities. Students got to decide where to put different shops, buildings, and fun areas on the map. Then, students got their own maps and were allowed to create their own community, complete with naming their community.

All in all, it was a rockin' awesome day! My students enjoyed themselves, and didn't even realize that they learned something! (I do love tricking students into learning!)

Each student earned a Certificate of Achievement, a magnet, a pencil, and a piece of candy.

Thank you, Mr. White!  We had a wonderful day! (And thank you for joining our blog!)