The Story of the Museum

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, The Discoverers started talking about a new PYP planner called, Attention Shoppers. Their teacher, Ms. Musters, showed them a German bill that she received from a student last year and the rest they say is history. The Discoverers started bringing in money from all over the world to share with the class. We started collecting so much money we had to put it in a box! We finally realized we had to find a way to display it and the idea for a money museum was born. However, our planner is not just about money - its about economic systems like bartering. The wise teacher, Ms. Musters, decided its time for a project! The students choose one vocabulary word from the planner (and that left one for Ms. Musters) and started researching what that word meant. Once we decided on a museum the ideas started flowing. First we needed jobs like cashier, docents and security. Second, if we were going to collect money what could we do with it? We learned last week about Juvenile Diabetes and decided to give all proceeds to that charity. Next, what would be in the museum in addition to all the coins and bills from around the world. That was the project. Each student (and their teacher) was responsible for creating an 'artifact' that would reflect the meaning of their word. The result was an incredible display of projects. We invited everyone we knew and not only taught others about economics, but in the process raised $80.00 for Juvenile Diabetes. The Discoverers were tired and hungry when the museum closed after three hours and so many visitors.