Year 5/6 Inquiry Learning
SUSTAINABLE MARKET DAY
Last Monday, the Year 5/6 students put their learning into action by holding a Sustainable and Upcycled Market Day. With a focus on sustainability, the students had been busy upcycling and using sustainable materials to create products to sell. In the afternoon, all students from across the school were invited to come and purchase the products and learn about the small business models.
Years 5/6 students got first-hand experience of the challenges and rewards of small business management including having to handle money, keep track of inventory and most importantly, customer service!
Students didn’t anticipate the sheer volume of sales they would be receiving, which put a bit of a strain on their inventory levels. This led to most stalls ‘selling out’ before the opportunity to sell their products to parents and carers who came in support.
At the conclusion, the totals of each stall (less their floats) were tallied to determine the final profit made per group and for the entire cohort.
It was very pleasing to see the support of the whole school community.
All proceeds from the market day will be donated to a charity – a grand total of $908.10 was made from the Market Day, an outstanding level of profit thanks to the Ripper Community!
These profits will be donated to a designated charity of choice by the stall holders who earned the greatest profit on the day.
We would like to congratulate Iris B, Rosie R, Tosca S and Molly B, who elected to donate the monies to the Olivia Newton-John Foundation.
All Year 5/6 students should be commended for their tireless efforts, creativity and enthusiasm and for spreading the message:
We can give things a new life or create things with a little sustainable ingenuity, if we just give it a try.
SHARK TANK
During this term, students have been undertaking learning focused on design and technology, financial literacy (profit and loss margins), and marketing and communications. To provide a real-life experience the Year 5/6 team developed a unit of inquiry titled 'Shark Tank', inspired by the television show.
This unit has seen students work in groups to identify a problem in their community and develop a solution to this problem. We began the unit by familiarizing students with the concept of Shark Tank, by watching some selected clips of local young people that have been on the show to gain investors for their business idea.
Following this initial exposure, students learnt about the design process – the methodology that inventors/creators undergo when forming a new idea or improving on an existing idea. Through research and peer investigation, they formed an idea, a concept or an invention that could benefit the modern market that is either made of sustainable elements or promotes sustainable future outcomes for the environment.
These concepts led them on the journey of becoming an environmentally conscious and innovative modern inventor. Students have considered all the benefits and costs of their design solution.
This week they entered the SHARK TANK and presented their finalised invention to a panel of ‘Sharks’ – sharing with them their ideas, costings, benefits to the environment marketing plans and of course demonstrating their ingenuity.
These oral presentations pushed students outside their comfort zones when the sharks asked some thought-provoking questions. This experience emphasised the need to know your target audience and driving a hard bargain.
We would like to extend a big thank you to Amelia Michael, David Smith, Bec Parker (parents) and later in the week Mrs Campbell, Emily and Jac for volunteering their time and expertise to be our resident sharks providing that much-needed audience and potential clients.
