"You mean Eastern Market is gonna be real?!" by Jennifer Rosenbaum

For the past two weeks, we have been deeply immersed in a study of "Markets and Food" in our classroom.  We have set up a grocery store in the dramatic play center, stocked up on food magazines in the library center, grocery store circulars in the art center, and plastic food and water to make "soup" in the sand and water tables.  We have been reading books about grocery stores, markets, and shopping, and my students are eager to learn more about the subject.   
  
Last week we took a field trip to Eastern Market, a well known farmers market in Washington, DC.  In the days preceding the trip, I was careful to make explicit connections between what we had been learning about in class and what we would see at the market.  We read several books about markets, including To Market, To Market by Anne Miranda, Market Day by Lois Elhert, A Day at the Market by Sara Anderson, and Markets by Pamela Chanko.  We talked at length about items typically sold at markets, how vendors acquire their goods, how customers purchase items, and why markets are important.  
 
The day before our trip, during center time, I was re-reading To Market, To Market with Mayala.  We were discussing everything we saw in the illustrations and what we might see at Eastern Market.  Suddenly everything seemed to come together for her; her eyes lit up and she looked at me with excitement – "You mean Eastern Market is gonna be real?!" she asked in disbelief.  
 
To Mayala, Eastern Market was simply an abstract concept.  She understood plenty about markets and food – she could tell you what people buy in markets, that food is stored in a warehouse before it reaches a grocery store, that people need money to buy food – but she didn't understand that Eastern Market, this elusive place that we had been talking about, was actually real and right in her backyard. 
 
This short conversation reminded me of the importance of purposeful planning in pre-k.  I designed everything about our unit – from the topic to the materials to the field trips – to build upon my students' current knowledge and expand their understandings about the world.  Mayala was familiar with the concepts of food and grocery stores before our unit began, and throughout the unit she has developed an understanding of markets and basic economic concepts.  Our trip to Eastern Market helped solidify her newfound knowledge and make it meaningful to her. Now, as we come to the end of our unit, Mayala will have the experiences and materials necessary to build upon her knowledge and draw important connections from her learning.