Students will analyze which snacks will be sold in the store by surveying the wants and needs of the consumers. They will determine what will be purchased with the money procured from the snack sales.

The learners will:

• conduct and analyze a survey.
  
• classify snacks into general categories.
  
• define producers and consumers.
  
• brainstorm ideas of what the money from the snack sale will be used for.
  
• come to a group consensus.

Day One:

Anticipatory Set:
Gather students for discussion. Hold up the pictures that the students drew in the previous lesson. Ask students to recall the reason for drawing these pictures (trying to think of ways to spend money that would benefit the class, whole school or community). Then ask them: “If we wanted to purchase something for the school or community and be a philanthropist what could we do to earn the money?” Write the students’ ideas on the chalkboard. (If students don’t mention a food sale, then the teacher may want to say, “I know about a classroom that held a snack sale for the whole school. They were able to use the money they earned to buy a picnic table for the playground.” Steer the brainstorming session to the conclusion of selecting the food sale.

• Tell the students that the first step in having a food sale is determining what the wants of their customers are. They will find out what students want for a snack by surveying them. Ask the students to name different types of snacks. Write down their ideas and classify them according to the following groups: cookies and bars, muffins and bread, crackers and chips, other.
  
  
• Give the students a piece of paper and ask them to prepare a table to be used for the purpose of gathering information from the rest of the school. (Teacher note: younger students should fold the paper into three sections and draw a cookie, muffin and a pretzel at the top of each section. Older students can draw a table and use written words)
  
  
• Prepare the students for collecting data. Show them how to make tally marks. They will need to explain their project to the classrooms they visit and get responses from the students. Divide the students into teams. The team members may have different jobs such as explaining the project, counting hands raised, writing the tally marks and thanking the class. When they are ready, send the students to the various classrooms with their survey to get the tally of the favorite snacks. (Make arrangements with the other teachers in advance. For kindergarten students, have an adult or older student accompany each group to the classrooms.)
  
  
• When students return to the class, make a class graph of the compiled data. Since the data represents a large number of students, you may wish to represent five students with a single mark on the graph. Or, each group may report only the most popular choice of the classroom they surveyed for the graph.

  Day Two

• After the results of the survey are analyzed, discuss with the children how we will go about paying for and preparing the snacks for the sale (parent donations, loan from teacher or principal, parent-made goodies or make the snacks).
  
  

• Introduce the terms producers and consumers by holding up the file cards and reading the words. Ask the students, “Have any of you heard of these words?” Give the example of when you go shopping: “I am the consumer because I buy what the store sells. The people who make the things I buy are called producers.” Recall some of the stories from the previous lesson to identify the producers and consumers in those situations. Ask the students to identify producers and consumers in familiar situations: If I buy blueberries at the farmers’ market, am I a producer or a consumer? (Optional activity: pass out file cards with producer or consumer written on it. Students may role-play a situation to demonstrate what they have on their cards.)

  Day Three

• Tell the students, “Today we will decide what we want to buy for our school/community/classroom.” Refer to the brainstormed list of their ideas and their drawings from the previous lesson.
  
  

• Make a list of criteria that is important to you: cost, benefit to maximum number of people, safety, etc. Then have the students help you rate the choices. You can plot the choices on a grid with the criteria to determine the best choices. Or, you can vote by a show of hands on the three most popular choices. Define the “commons” in the school or community.
  
  

• Teacher note: you may wish to discuss this project with the principal prior to asking the students how to spend their money. You (or the principal) may already have an idea of how to use this money so that you can guide the students in their decisions.
  
  

• If you wish, invite the principal into your classroom to give input on the idea of what to purchase. Together, as a group, make a final decision on the use of the money and what will be purchased.