Who knew changing our dramatic play area in the classroom into a lemonade stand would create an enriched learning experience for our classroom? This provocation will go down in the memory books for sure! As I observed the children in the kitchen area, I saw a few children making juice, baking cookies, etc. The weather was nice and some children began talking about lemons and making lemonade. Together we collaborated on an idea to turn the dramatic play area into a lemonade stand. I began to collect cups, fruit slices and ice cubes that were made out of resin, pitchers, plates, napkins, straws and so much more.
The first day we opened our classroom lemonade stand a sort of “frenzy” began which we would later call our “Lemonade Saga!” The children took turns being customers, they also had opportunities to be the cashier and the lemonade chef who created yummy lemonade. The children began to learn about Canadian currency as we showed the difference between a $5, $10 and $20 bill. The children soon grew familiar with the $5 bill or “blue money,” as Easton and Emily would put it. We made sure to provide aprons for the children to wear to get the full lemonade stand experience. While observing and listening to the preschoolers, a few children suggested that we should sell lemonade to the educators, and that’s just what we did!
We created a lemonade stand on wheels by using one of the kitchen carts and went around to each program room asking if the educators wanted lemonade and a cookie. A few days later, the children enjoyed their turn being the customer as educator Catherine sold lemonade and banana loaves to the children. Our mini entrepreneurs weren’t done yet though, it was just the beginning.
During group time, educator Catherine posed a question at group time asking who we should sell lemonade to next. Without missing a beat, Melina said “to our families!” This is when the “Lemonade Crushers” were born! Preschool 1 partnered with the Family and Children Services Foundation and the children picked a goal of $700, which would send 2 children to camp in the region through FACS! We created flyers and did a social media blast to get the news out. The rain couldn’t stop us from succeeding on the first day. We met so many family members and members of the community that day. We even met the fantastic team from RisingOaks Early Learning Head Office!
To our surprise and excitement, by the end of the first day we had already crushed our original goal! I asked the children how many more children we should aim to send to camp. A few of the children responded by saying “We should send all the kids to camp,” which did our educator hearts proud. Our preschool classroom learnt how much of an impact we had on the community by simply selling lemonade. Together we agreed on a new goal of trying to send 5-6 children to camp and to our surprise we crushed that goal as well! By the end of the two days we had sold 31 pitchers of lemonade and raised $2475 which resulted in sending 7 children to summer camp! To top it all off, we received a certificate in recognition for all of our hard work from Mayor Barry of Kitchener, that we proudly display on our counter.
Over the time with the lemonade saga, we created different tuff tray provocations for the children to engage with like lemonade recipe cards, fruit punch that turned into lemonade, using our muscles by squeezing a lot of lemon juice out of lemons etc. As we wrapped up our lemonade saga I look back to all the learning, excitement and impact we had not only inside our classroom but more importantly our community. It all started with a lemonade stand dramatic play area and look at all the memories we created, which will last a lifetime!
