Second grade organized a book swap for our school to be the OPPOSITE of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, one of our Core Knowledge literature units.
Second graders did all of the planning, advertising, announcing, organizing, and running of this event. They chose which of several committees they would best be suited for: writing "Christmas" carols about books, making tickets, making posters, or delivering announcements. Students from all grades brought in books they had outgrown or didn't want any more, and exchanged them for tickets. Second graders then organized the stock into various categories like a book store. Students were then able to trade their tickets in for new books.
Second graders learned plenty: the good feeling of doing charitable work, the work it takes to plan an event, the many different categories one item can go into, teamwork, how frustrating rude/messy shoppers are to store employees, and MORE.
With a few minor changes, it bears repeating.
