Real-World Learning at the JG1 Market

Picture a JG1 student carefully arranging handmade dog toys on a table, rehearsing what to say when a customer walks up. Nearby, their classmate tends to a plant they grew from a seedling, ready to explain why it's good for the environment. At another stall, students explain to a customer how these necklaces and pencil holders were all transformed from donated odds and ends.  

This is JG1's Market Day, an annual tradition at WAB, and this year the JG1 team intentionally wove the event into their Sharing the Planet unit and grounding it in a real purpose: raising funds for Snuggle Pups, who have been on campus this year providing dog therapy to our students. Students were asked to think what they could sell and why: how could their products directly help animals, or spread a message to inspire others to protect the earth? 

Over 12 weeks, students planned, planted, created, designed, and collaborated, building real-world skills at every step. Starting with brainstorming: What do people need? What would they want to buy? Students identified seven stores, each with a purpose connected to nature and sustainability, including plants grown from seedlings, handmade bird feeders, dog toys crafted from scratch, Chinese herbal tea, fragrant sachet bags, tote bags printed with environmental messages, and a sustainable creations stall made entirely from recycled, donated materials. 

Each week, mixed groups of JG1 and Grade 4 students met to brainstorm, make products, and plan their displays. In a lovely role reversal, the Grade 4s, who had learned traditional Chinese sachet-making in their own unit came to teach the younger students their craft. 

The whole JG1 grade also visited a real local market, armed with 20 kuai each and a mission. Before they went, students studied what a market looks like, talked about what they wanted to buy and why, and observed how sellers use price labels and packaging. They noticed plastic bags at stalls, needed for customers to carry their goods, they improved on the idea by offering sustainable tote bags for purchase instead. They also practiced their Mandarin, learning key phrases like 这个多少钱 so that they could communicate with the local vendors.  

Back at school, role play sessions prepared students for the big day: how to introduce your product, how to tell a customer the price, how to say thank you — and yes, even how to respond if someone tries to haggle. (The class agreed: no discounts at the start. Maybe at the end.) When Market Day arrived, students ran their own stalls with a token system, designed to keep sums within ten, just right for this age group. JG1 students practiced counting, handling transactions, and making change in a real-world context.  Collaborative artworks went to auction and leftover paper bags collected from families were handed out as reusable shopping bags, one more layer of sustainability thinking made visible. 

The ideas, products, posters, pricing, pitches came from the students themselves. In twelve weeks, JG1 students practiced planning and goal-setting, responsibility and follow-through, collaboration across age groups, financial literacy and numeracy, communication and persuasion in two languages, and the satisfaction of doing something that helps others.  

"The JG1 Market Day embodies what real-world learning looks like. Students made connections between their unit on interdependence and their own actions — from sustainable production choices to working alongside Grade 4 mentors. They practiced communication, applied math through counting and exchanging tokens, and developed confidence as sellers and leaders. Most importantly, they experienced how their learning can create tangible impact beyond the classroom." - Liam Cunningham, JG Learning Leader