Ford Rouge Factory Field Trip

By Chloe

On the way to the factory we had to take a long bus ride. We got lost and ended up near the bridge to Canada. Finally we got there and started off to see the assembly line. It was fun to see the parts being carried to one place to another. The workers smiled at us and carried on with their work. After, we saw the finished F150. We saw people driving them around. Then we got to see the green roof from the observation tower.  We saw crickets and the drainage of the parking lot.

We went down a big elevator and into a movie room. We saw the history of Ford. We saw how they made some of the older cars like the Model T. The first movie was not loud but the next was so loud you could feel it in your heart! It was a stimulation. At some points the fans came on and there was a mist. The ground even shook once! We sat in chairs that spun around so that you could see one of the seven screens. After that, we went to go get lunch. Lucky on the way back we did NOT get lost!!!

Economic Adventures!

Working with our third grade friends, we wrote stories that had an economic problem.  The best part is, we animated them using the iPads on an awesome program called Toontastic!

You have to check out our cartoons!

Toontastic's ToonTube

Book Clubs

The Thinkers have book club groups.  During our PYP unit How We Organize Ourselves the Thinkers read books that connected to economics.  Every few days they met to discuss what they were assigned to read the days before.  They also had to summarize the section and record aconomic connections.  Once they completed all the sections of their book, they had to do a project on what they learned.  Some groups did skits, some did pictures. It was fun!

By Josh

Reconciling Market Day

After we had our Market day, we had to count all of our money to see if we had a healthy economy.  We all added up and counted how much money each business made once our business closed.  Then we took out our pink recording sheet and subtracted our expenses to see if our business was healthy.  Those who had a healthy economy got a plus.  The people who did not have a healthy economy either had too low of a profit or too high of expenses.  Overall, we learned how to properly run a business.

By Luca and Katie

Market Day

Market Day was a lot of fun.  Our PYP unit was How We Organize Ourselves, we called it Let's Trade.  During Let's Trade we were learning about economies.  Our summative assessment was Market Day!  All of the 4th grade classes made a product or service of their choice.

First we had to decide what we should provide as a product or service.  Second, we had to get approved.  Third, we filled out our business plan.  Fourth, we got to start making it.  When the big day came we turned our pencil box into a cash register and put our pencils in a bag.  When we got money, we wrote our name on three of the one dollar bills to see if the money would flow around like when we read the book The Go Around Dollar.

Finally, we got all of our products or services set up.  Then we got our recording sheet to keep track of how much we sold.  A couple minutes later, people from the other classes started coming in to buy things.  Some people were not having good business sales so they were lowering their prices.  Other people lowered their prices because of compitetion. 


We were the last class to shop on Market Day and some businesses had already sold out!  Market Day was a lot of fun!

By Katie and Elana

Bead Economy

We did a bead project to learn about the three main types of economies.  For this bead project, we had to put beads on a string in a special order to make a bracelet.  Each group had four people.  

For the traditional economy, one person made a bracelet at a time, and we all had to inspect and approve it to make sure they did it right.  We got paid for each correctly made bracelet.

For the command economy, we each had a special part.  One person cut the string to the special length.  The next person kept the beads organized.  The next person strung the beads on the string.  The last person tied the knot so the beads didn't fall off.  

For the market economy, our group got to decide what to make, and how to make it.  We got paid for each item we made correctly.  At the end, Ms. Diem came and counted how many items each team made.

It was a fun way to learn about the different economies!

By Dana and Brynn

Paperclip Economy

We are having a lot of fun in school with our economics unit, Let's Trade. One of the things we did was have a paperclip economy. It was where we had paperclips for money, and we had to buy different squares of paper in different colors to complete our shopping list.

There were four stores, and each one sold the paper squares for different prices. We had to spend our paperclips to fill out or order, but some stores ran out of supplies which made it challenging!

By Josh and Shay