The idea for the pool fundraiser came about during one of our reading lessons. Our class was reading the story, Here’s My Dollar. The gist of the story was how one young girl organized a fundraising effort to save their local zoo in Fresno, CA. The zoo was running out of money to feed the animals. It detailed how she developed a slogan and a fundraising campaign that saved the zoo from closing. It became a community-wide effort.

We are constantly working with the kids to make text-to-world connections in what we read. Immediately, the students brought up the idea of raising money for our Alex Pool. What a great teachable moment! We then brainstormed ideas of things that we could do to help save the pool (list attached). They came up with some really outstanding ideas. Then we decided on the idea of selling t-shirts, so we needed to come up with a slogan. We decided on “If You Want To Be Cool—Save Alex Pool!”

I am fortunate to teach the high ability students. In keeping with that, I continually challenge my students to go above and beyond. This benefits not only them, but my general education students as well. I firmly believe that students achieve to the level of expectations.

Alexandria is also a participant in the Economics America Program through Ball State University. This class activity embodies many of the components of this program.