IDS News

Event Was Right On The Moola
By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jun 2, 2007

CARROLLWOOD - Chandni Patel and Juliana Doprado wanted to come up with a business they could do for girls. The third-graders stocked it with nail polish, glitter and stickers to make it as girly as possible.

Then Jack McMahan crashed their party.

He paid his money, offered his right hand and asked for red fingernails. He thought it would be funny. The girls giggled, but Juliana painted his nails anyway. Chandni did the left hand in blue. Jack, 9, nixed any pink polish.

It fit right in at the Bizarre Bazaar at Independent Day School last week.

After studying economics and businesses, third-graders finished the school year by setting up booths with treats, services and games that other students at the private school could purchase.

Classes had talked about partnerships versus sole proprietors, said third-grade teacher Kim Fowler. They talked about pricing and what contributes to cost, Fowler said. They practiced advertising techniques during a writing assignment and employed them for the bazaar, posting signs promoting their businesses and coming up with deals to attract students.

The bazaar, an annual event, required them to develop ideas for a product or service they wanted to provide to their classmates. If they were creating a product, they had to submit an application and get a patent. They also thought about how to make their businesses appealing to their customers. Chandni and Juliana, for example, filled a candy bowl for students to eat from while they waited to get their nails done.

Purchases were made with fake money - known around the school as moola - that children in several grades earned for good deeds and good behavior. The moola came in handy at the bazaar and at a school auction midway through the year.

Different jobs earn different amounts of moola, said third-grade teacher Ann Cashen. Teachers used the rewards for positive reinforcement, doling out the bucks for turning in homework or doing jobs around the classroom. Students also could get prizes for showing good character.

Children ran from table to table last week with plastic bags stuffed with moola and selected their rewards. With help from parents and older siblings, students cooked up cheeseburgers and dipped pretzels in chocolate to sell. Patrons could buy a neck massage, get their hair sprayed outrageous colors or pick out "something squishy," balloons filled with sand and decorated with happy faces or "friends forever."

Matheus Caldeira, 8, offered up "weird but true names" - translations of classmates' given names into Hawaiian. His parents used to live in Hawaii, and he got hooked on a book that provided Hawaiian versions of English names and their meanings.

For five moola bucks, "Makana Lani" would look up your name.

Other students created carnival games. Quinn Ausburn, 9, and Zachary Brodsky, 9, manned a "Fear Factor" stand where they dared students to put lemon slices in their mouth and not make a face or delve into "cow manure" (chocolate pudding) to find pennies at the bottom of the tub.

Third-grader Alex Rivera designed a Ski-ball game out of cardboard boxes. He cut out holes worth different points and rigged a ramp made of a flattened box leading up to it. Students could win candy if they rolled the ball into the right hole. It took a couple attempts before he found a working system. On the first try, the balls rolled off the ramp.

"I think Ski-ball is a really good game," Alex said. "It could test your skills of rolling stuff."

Jeremy Leeds turned to his father and Lowe's for help. Jeremy, 8, wanted to create a "wheel of fortune," where children would spin for tickets and a chance at winning plastic "stained glass" he had painted. He described what he needed to the salesperson at Lowe's, and then his father, Michael, helped to assemble it, rigging up a stand from leftover crown molding when it started to topple.

A few steps away, Jack McMahan had taped photos of school staff to a wall and provided soaked sponges for students to toss at them, three throws for $5.

"I just wanted to make people laugh by throwing sponges at teachers," he said.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503 or cpastor@tampatrib.com.