The Extended Education children love engaging in imaginary play, forming store fronts and retail exchanges, and selling their paper crafted goodies once they have created them. So naturally, when the opportunity arose to sell something real, with actual money, the children put on their sales hats and got to work. The White Birch Cookbook: Recipes from Cooks and Kids, served as a great opportunity to harness the children’s interests.
First, we conducted “job” interviews where children were asked why they wanted to sell cookbooks and what their sales pitch would be. All applicants were hired for the job, but we used their individual strengths to determine which part of the sales process they would be involved in. After the interview process, the children got to work within the marketing department. They created flyers and posters that were hung up in the classroom, highlighting the information in the cookbooks. Our sales team then went to work, establishing ways on how they could politely ask people to buy the cookbooks. Then the sales began! The children set up a table with their flyers and a copy of the cookbook. They took turns greeting people when they entered the building, talking to them about the cookbooks, showing them examples of their own recipes, and taking money and recording cookbook sales.
The cookbook sale has been a great opportunity for the children’s individual skills, knowledge, and interests to emerge and grow through a multi-step, multi-day project.