Cedar Trails Students: 'Welcome to Nuthtown'

Excited voices filled the hallway at Cedar Trails Elementary on Monday, as students hurried from one “store” to the next in “Nuthtown.” Hosted by teacher Kaitlin Nuth and students in the Learning Resource Center 2 (LRC2) class at Cedar Trails, along with other staff, this was the eighth Nuthtown Day event.

In preparation for the festivities, Nuth and team spend a month studying an economics unit about needs and wants, consumers and producers, community helpers and best practices for running a business. At the end, they create products out of recycled items to “sell” with pretend money during the event. They also built store front displays, decided the price they would sell each item for, and determined how to track their inventory.

Student shoppers from other classes were given $3 in "Nuthtown money" to spend when they visited the shops. If they wanted to earn additional pretend dollars, they could perform jobs such as testing old markers to determine if they should be recycled, wipe the windows, dust, clean railings and or complete a few other options, then visit the Nuthtown bank for a paycheck.

The products students created included laminated colorful letters with magnets on the back, colorful rockets, endearing frogs, colorful paper dolls, turtles out of egg cartons and more.

Congratulations to all the “small business owners” of Nuthtown, and to each student and staff member who participated in this year’s event!

At top, a Cedar Trails Elementary student smiles from the booth he created for "Nuthtown," selling spy glasses and safari letter magnets. Immediately above, a student smiles at her booth of pretend crayons, which she created from recycled materials. Below, teacher Kaitlin Nuth smiles with one of her students during the event.