Meeting the new grade

On Friday each grade spent 30minutes with the new grade children that they will have next year. The children do not know who their teacher is so it was a good way to see how the children interacted with each other.

We met the grade 3 children down at the outdoor basketball court and put them into 11 teams. We played a trivial pursuit game with them.

They had to answer a series of questions as quick as them can while working as a team.


It was great fun and the new grade 4 look like a lovely bunch of children. Can't wait to met them next year.


Although I will miss my current grade 4's. They are fabulous.

Market Day Shops Open

On Friday we had our first round of stalls open for the children to visit. Each group had to first present their infomercials to the grade. There were some very clever sales pitches. At 8am the stalls were open and the children could look around. Each child was given $6 oompaloompas to spend at the stalls. During the morning each stall was visited by their personal banker who came to collect the loan, interest and rent totaling $12 oompaloompas.

Only one stall was unable to repay the full $12 back and they will need to rethink their marketing plan for Tuesday's selling.




There were some great bargains up for grab and Mr Simon enjoyed the shoulder massage that was available at one of the stalls.

Swim team video

This is a video that Mr John created to show what the swim team have been up to.

Market day final preparations

Today was the final preparations before the shops open on Friday. Groups had a time allocated where they could decorate their boards. They had to advertise their shops and display what they are selling with costs.


Friday morning they will be given a short time to put out their products before each group has to present a one minute infomercial to all of the grade 4 children.



Then the stalls will open. Groups will be given 2 x 15 minutes to shop at different break out spaces. After each end has had a turn at shopping then we will finish off with 10minutes of shopping at both ends.
Each child will be given $6 oompaloompa's to spend at the the stalls. During the morning each group will be visited by the their local class bank manager (teacher) who will collect off them $12 oompaloompa's - $10loan for materials, $1 for interest and $1 for rental (shop rental). We hope each groups makes the $12 during the morning.

UOI guest speaker - FRIENDS International

As part of our UOI into "How we organise ourselves" we had James from Friends International come and talk to the grade 4 children.
He talked to them about how Friends markets themselves as a social business. He explained that their core work is working to help children and families get off the street. To help fund this they rely on donations from donors as well as what they sell in their shops. The funds they raise go back into their organisation to help support children and families.

His biggest message to the children was if they want to help the best way they can is to ignore the children begging and to purchase items from their shops as the money goes directly back into Friends International
Check out their website.

Friends International

Lisa from Friends International who is their marketing and product designer talked about their biggest seller the paper bead necklace and bracelets.

She talked about how they train adults to make these products in their homes and then friends buys it off them. The women then make enough money to feed and support their families. Lisa then got the children to come up with some new designs that they could create with the paper beads. Some very cleaver designs.

Antony birthday

Today it was Antony's birthday and we were really lucky to have two yummy cakes delivered.

Happy Birthday Antony.

Market day Preparation

This week the market day madness started with children busy making their products to sell at our market day.

The class was a hive of activity as children concentrated on making their product. There was major failures and some adjustments needed on their design as they realised that they had not thought thru their product production close enough or they realised it was impossible to make it it the short timeframe they had.

We have 6 stalls that will open for sale on Friday 27th. Products being created range from birthday cards, bookmarks, cushions, stress balls, squishes and slime.

It will be interesting to see what products sell and what doesn't.

The class also had to design our money for our market day. The name of the money is "Oompaloompa's". The class voted for the top two designs that will be used on the day.

The winning designs were by Liza and Gangmin.

The class also had to create a forecast budget. They had to predict what they will sell their products for and how many they will need to make.
They also had to take into account their expenses.
So far their expenses are

Bank Loan - Set up cost) = $10oompaloompas
Interest on loan               = $1oompaloompa
Rental of shop            = $1oompaloompa

Each group has to make $12oompaloompas before they can make any profit.