You can cash your paycheck at the bank, dash into the bakery for chocolate chip cookies, watch a live talk show at the television station, or check out an exhibit on Native American culture at the local science museum. Twice a year, the 320 K-5 students at B.F. Day School transform their halls into storefronts and themselves into mini entrepreneurs. More than just fun and games, market days teach the kids basic skills, while connecting what they're learning in the classroom with what they'll need to know later in life. By writing news stories and ads for the television station, for example, Jeff Hume's second, third, and fourth graders practice their grammar and language skills. Owners donate time and materials to help student businesses get off the ground.
Stockbrokers come to school to talk to students about finances.
A disk jockey briefs students on producing a talk show. The hospital donates band-aids for the kids' first aid storefront. And so on. Members of the local Chamber of Commerce turn out for market day to lend support and congratulate students on their had work. Parents and district administrators come by to tour the marketplace, and buy jewelry, flowers, and baked goods.