If you have not had the privilege of spending time with 7, 8 and 9 year-olds lately, you are missing out! I taught the first two segments of the Junior Achievement Program for 2nd graders: Community.
We started with a colorful poster of a community, with people working and playing. We talked about the jobs in the poster and the jobs the students are thinking of as they grow up. We had a doctor, an animal protector, an athlete and a skate board dude in the group!
Then we experimented with unit production versus assembly line production. I am not sure at all how it was supposed to turn out, but our assembly line teams only produced one donut more in a two-minute experiment than our unit production teams.
Too bad they were paper donuts, we were all ready to eat some by the end.
1st and 2nd graders are energetic, interested, and ready to think about big things. And as the Junior Achievement volunteer, I was able to add my spin to things. I pointed out that some of the people doing ‘jobs’ might be business owners, others might work for a business or government, and others might be volunteers.
Next week is a segment on government workers. They’ll all get paid and then have to pay taxes to help cover the costs of government. Wait until I get to put my spin on that!
