Secret Shop

Secret Shop is open! Third grade classes have been busy preparing for this week’s grand opening by practicing the math skills, honing the social skills, and developing the leadership skills needed to run the shop. Students in Primary and Middle Schools are flooding into the shop to purchase holiday gifts from reasonably-priced items donated by Lowell families. While the shop will close tomorrow, the 3^rdgraders’ work won’t be done. The project will wrap up later this month with the students writing letters and sending the shop proceeds to local charities that they have researched and chosen. 

 

Preparing for Secret Shop is no easy task! Third graders go through rigorous real-life simulations to practice money handling and customer service skills. When learning to wrap gifts, the students encounter complex shapes. As they work through the challenge of wrapping a cylinder, irregular triangle, or shapes that are utterly undefinable, they call on their spatial reasoning and fine motor skills. 

 

Cashiering is probably the toughest job in the shop. To prepare for this role, they learn to count change for purchases through math games using dice marked with dollar amounts under $5.00. In one game, students pair off, one playing the role of the customer, the other the cashier. The customer rolls the dice four times and must total the amounts from the four rolls. If the total is under $5.00, the cashier must then calculate the change the customer should receive. If the total is over $5.00, the cashier must deliver the grim news that the customer needs to exchange an item. 

 

Secret Shop, a beloved tradition at Lowell, not only offers valuable learning experiences for the 3rd graders, it empowers them to serve their communities—a kind reminder for us all to seek opportunities to be in service to others. Classes choose a charity to receive the proceeds from the shop. Guiding the process, teachers use questions such as: What is important to you? and Where do you want to see the money going? The students then conduct research using the online service, Charity Navigator, which rates organizations based on their financial health, accountability, and transparency.

  

Reflecting on what she sees in children who go through the Secret Shop experience, 3rd Grade Teacher Kathie Clements says the students walk taller as they become more competent in each role. “My favorite moment so far,” Kathie says, “is when [one] student said, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever be able to give change!’ But then, after a practice session on making change came back with a huge smile: ‘I can do it! I’m ready to work at the Secret Shop!’ ”