Today was the last day of my “summer camp” classes. I was so pleased with how much my sixth-grade class (which actually included not just sixth graders but at least one fifth grader, one fourth grader, and a third grader, too) seemed to like the project. We made a town, on the bulletin board, using construction paper, with scissors and crayons and pens. And using dice, we played a game, running businesses, having disasters, earning money, buying and selling land. We even had a stock market.
It was a small class. All the regulars showed up for the last day. We liquified assets, and I sold them “real world” stickers and candy. $200 bought a miniature chocolate bar, and $300 got a small sheet of smileyface stickers. We disassembled the town.
Here is a video I made, this morning, before that end. The girls’ ability-levels are highly varied, but they all understood the main ideas, and got into the project.