Today we picked up from last week in our study on rocks and focused on igneous rock. We separated into 2 teams and a bag of marshmallows to see the ways igneous rock can be formed. A quick cooling with produce a clump and crazy pattern (aka a big handful of marshmallows) while a slow cooling produces smooth, neat pattern (aka marshmallows neatly separated and stacked). We then ventured outside to find rocks in the dirt pile at church to add to our collection. What a great activity for the unusually warm November day!
One of the cornerstones of Tidal Kids is teaching kids complex economic principles at a child’s level of understanding. Today we learned about the CPI and inflation. We made a mini grocery store filled with the staples a family would buy for the week (eggs, milk, meat, pasta, fruit, etc). The kids teamed up in groups of 2 and had to purchase as many groceries as they could for $20 and fill their shopping cart (aka the market basket). For $20 they were able to fill their carts to the brim. We then doubled the prices of every good. The kids were disappointed to have to put some items away as they were unable to purchase everything that had previously for the $20 (somehow everyone was always able to afford the ice cream though!) Lots of lessons were learned here today.. why budgeting is important, how inflation makes it more difficult to purchase our usual goods, we also used lots of math while adding up the price of our groceries!
After our grocery exercise we moved onto money. They kids examined different currencies from around the world and then made their own! We had goog-bas & quarter forts invented! We discussed how their new currency won’t be accepted at a store because it has no backing. Which will lead nicely into our lesson next week where we will read the Tuttle Twins book, The Creature from Jekyll Island.
