lesson plan

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LESSON PLAN

GINGERBREAD PROJECT

By Nancy Hutto

Math Teacher

Memorial Middle School, South Portland, Maine

PURPOSE: To provide students with a real world business experience and assist them in learning the value of team work

OBJECTIVES:

Students will:

experience being an entrepreneur for fundraising purposes

understand the role of the different departments

evaluate the use of the learning results

learn about being a collaborative worker

MATERIALS:

small milk carton(half pint)

8" piece of ribbon (I use Christmas curly ribbon.)

four graham crackers

two small candy canes

one Red Twizzler

colorful M&M’s

piping tubes with a tip of your choice(FROSTING DECORATIVE BAGS)

one box of confectionary sugar

water

shortening

EQUIPMENT:

COMPUTERS AND CALCULATORS

PROCEDURES:

1.Invite a small business owner to your classroom to discuss how their

product was developed and marketed.

2.Introduce the six departments.

Advertising designs posters and forms

Marketing discusses strategies to sell the product and develops a plan.

Accounting develops a system of keeping a record of sales.

Finance finds the cost of one house.

Production collects, cleans, and prepares milk cartons

Construction puts the houses together (Most students do this).

3.`Once students understand the roleS of each department, they must          select which department they would like to work in.

4. Students start working.

              Advertising may ask the class to design a poster, and then they                 select the poster they wish to use and design forms.

Marketing works on strategies to sell the product. They write letters to other schools and make announcements. The students use the computer to write their letters and send them to the different schools via e-mail.

Accounting develops a bookkeeping record on computer.

Finance starts counting materials they will use for completing the houses. For example, they count every M&M in a bag and calculate how much one will cost etc. with graham crackers, candy canes, twizzler, confectionary sugar, and shortening.

Production designs a sign to put on a trash CAN WHICH WILL BE USED TO PUT MILK CARTONS IN. STUDENTS will leave THE TRASH CAN in the cafeteria during lunch. They will collect the trash can after lunch and start washing and drying cartons.

Construction is like an assembly line with four to five desks in a line. Students rotate stations daily, so that everyone will experience all steps.

One student should be cutting the crackers. He/she should make a packet of four ½ crackers and two complete crackers that have been cut with a template.

One to two students should be the delivery persons as they deliver to each station cartons and cracker packets.

See pictures of each step on the instruction web page.

1^st station-glues crackers on carton

2^nd station-pipes frosting (PUSHES FROSTING OUT OF DECORATIVE BAG)

3^rd station-applies M&M

4^th station-cuts twizzler in half

and applies on back of house

5^th station-applies candy canes

on front of house

There should be a student at the end of station five to inspect the houses for quality work.

If the houses are not of quality work, then it goes back to station one.

All students, except for production and accounting, work in construction. Production needs to supply construction with cartons, and accounting records daily sales and expenses.

After students have completed a house and the inspector has approved it as a quality product, let the house dry overnight. The next day, the students arrange their houses on a table in the hall and sell their houses at lunchtime. First thing in the morning, four students, who were given permission to go to other schools, arrange houses on the cover of a box. With their teacher, the students sell their products to the elementary students and take orders for the next day.

ASSESSMENT:

Students write essays about their experience and tell how they used the learner outcomes (Student comments on web page).

Frosting recipe: (I make this at home and fill plastic decorative tubes so that                            students can start working the next day).

one pound box of confectionary sugar

one cup of shortening of your choice

half a cup of water

Mix all ingredients until it is creamy . Fill tubes and wrap ends with an elastic band so that students do not get frosting all over themselves.

Note:

This project takes three weeks to complete.