Impromptu Lesson

At some point in the day on Wednesday, the kids were doing their chores.  They had been talking and coming up with "inventions."  Savannah was working on cleaning the bathroom and had decided that she was going to invent a "No streaks, 4 weeks" window cleaner.  She came in telling me how it would work and how great it would be.  I decided to use this as a "teachable moment" and do an impromptu activity.

The kids goal was to create an advertisement for their product that would entice the reader of a certain magazine to purchase it.  We looked at various advertisements in the Parents magazine and talked about the ways the advertisers specifically targeted parents, families, and kids (for example, the Wal-Mart advertisement focused on selling kids clothes).  We discussed why Wal-Mart chose to advertise kids clothes in this magazine.  We discussed how Wal-Mart doesn't just sell kids clothes, but the advertiser was appealing to a certain group of readers.  We then looked through various other ads and continued our discussion along the same lines while including examples from various styles of magazines.  We also talked a little about various propaganda techniques and some of the ads that we have scene on television recently.

Their first step was to create a one page advertisement for their product.  It had to have a catchy slogan and a little information that would attract a customer to the product.  They also had to design the product.  Next, they had to write a business letter/friendly letter to a store owner (me!) talking about their product and asking to meet with them to discuss the possibility of the owner selling the product in their store.  Finally, they had to have a meeting with the store owner and convince the store owner to sell their product.

They both spent a lot of time developing their ad.  Savannah stuck with her window cleaner idea, but JJ decided to go out on his own and created a new invention to help recycle water.  Here are their advertisements...

Savannah advertised her window cleaner.  The slogan was "No Streaks, 4 Weeks!"  On one side of the magazine page she previewed the product with a picture of the bottle, another slogan using the product name "Twinkles,"and offered the reader a coupon.  It also states that it is sold at local retailers.

She used the back side to encourage the reader further by letting them know how well the product works.

She wrote a business letter with enclosure.   The business letter format was new for her.  I did allow her to create make-believe address for the letter and the envelop because she asked if she "could make it up."

JJ advertised his "The Helper."  It takes your dirty sink water and runs it through a series of pipes and sponges.  The idea is that as you run it through various sponges and filters it can come through on the other end somewhere and be used for people who can't afford water.  His slogan was "It takes water from your sink and gives others a drink."  His cost was $200 per set-up.

He has the back side continue a diagram of the total piping necessary to complete the project.  It is made mainly of white PVC pipe.  The back page lets the buyer know that it is available to buy at Lowe's.

He is working on friendly letters in language arts so we stuck with a friendly letter style.  He made sure the store owner knew that they would get half the money on the product.

We had a lot of fun with the project.  They enjoyed using their creativity to make things, and they were learning all the while!