Itty Bitty, Little City {economics made fun}

each year our second grade hosts what we call “Itty Bitty City”

It is the culmination of our Economics unit and it’s a BLAST!
This year we added a few things and I wanted to share what we did because it can easily be tweaked for your use

each classroom decides on a good to sell and a service to provide
Our services are: a bank, a post office, a theatre, and a nail salon {me…yay!}
Our goods were: stationary, hobby shop with paper airplanes, cootie catchers, etc, a bakery, and a book store {yay! me again!}

We setup the day before and this year I even trained my nail techs on proper painting techniques…fyi…some even earned tips!

The only prep are the goods and they are all donated. We sent letters home schoolwide for used books and little debbies

Here’s how it went down…

These are in the hallway at the “main intersection” to our classrooms

Kinders and first graders are given 5 dollars of Itty Bitty money to spend on goods and services. Two classes visit for 30 minutes at a time. We charge anywhere from 50 cents to 3 dollars. Every student has a job and when they are not on the job, they get to be a consumer.

The Bakery

The Nail Salon

Prior to Itty Bitty City each child makes a replica mini-building. These pictures are from last year, but this year they could only use milk cartons we saved from the lunchroom {our little part to save the planet I guess}. I will post more pics cause they are caa-ute.

And here are some freebies in case you want to run your own little city!

and here’s an editable project and rubric

This one is pretty much caters to our school, but here’s a peek at our reflection booklet for the little producers after it’s all said and done. And don’t forget to pick up my Thinking Maps for Teaching Little Economists pack!

and I leave you with happy thoughts for your fast approaching 100th day. Ours’ is Monday and I picked up Lesson Plan SOS’s 100th Day Survivor pack. I can’t wait! Of course I will do the 100 item trail mix and make a hat or two! They are classics.

Happy February!

Last year’s Crayon Box that Talked bulletin board that we will replicate this week. I love that little book!