Slightly Off KIlter

I volunteered for Junior Achievement in November #151; five Tuesday, half an hour each, in a local second grade class. You can read the whys and wherefores in two parts in my regular weblog, Slightly Off Kilter (
Part 1 and Part 2). Activity 1 is here.

Activity 3 is “Government” and “Taxes” (uhuh). First, I talked to the kids about government and services. I skipped over the part where “you can’t call the police because everyone works at the donut shop” (feh). We talked about people who don’t work for businesses. We talked about things that can go wrong (a fire, a robber, an accident) and also about building roads and schools and housing.

Then we did the “payday and take back money in taxes”. One boy knew about sales tax.

I didn’t follow the script. I let 8 children “play” a part with the “badges”. There was certainly no need for me to wear the “tax collector” badge to get the kids enthusiastic! I let my tax collector collect taxes (I was her helper) and then we paid the city workers. I didn’t bother to count $5 to each kid. I just gave each kid more than 3 bills. Some had more than 5. That’s how money works.

The second half was sticker work; I changed that too. Instead of having everyone just paste stickers, I called up 8 more volunteers, one at a time, and had each one find one of the workers on the big community poster. That got them involved and also helped because the poster is pretty far from the kids and some of the little drawings are pretty small.

I wasn’t happy with the sticker sheet. Several of the people stickers are VERY small. That’s dumb. They should all be about the same size. Forget perspective! Think about 7-year-old fingers!

I think the teacher was happier this time. I let her “lead” in terms of the play money. The booklet says “tell the kids they can keep the $3 they have left”. I know “my” teacher wants to clean up and not leave distractions for the kids. So I rather expected it when she said “do we need the money anymore?” and I said “Nope. We’re done with that.”

I also gave the teacher the stack of magnets and postcards and suggested she could give them to the kids before they went home.