Learning to be educated consumers

Sparta - Last week, Helen Morgan Elementary School third-graders traded their classroom and books for hands-on lessons in the aisles of ShopRite of Byram. On Tuesday, April 4, and Wednesday, April 5, the students took part in a program designed to challenge them to use their problem-solving, math and reasoning skills to solve real-life issues. This is only the second year Helen Morgan students have taken part in the educational field trip, labeled the Young Consumer program. Ronetco Supermarkets, Inc., has been conducting this program for the past four years, hosting children from 13 area schools. Students in teams of three or four are faced with math and logic problems at 10 stations located throughout the store. The challenges vary from solving a Chinese puzzle to figuring out the number of ounces of meat in a sandwich based on the weight of a single slice. The children earn point values for their team depending on how well they preform the tasks in the allotted time. “It is a very comprehensive program where the students get an opportunity to show what they know,” said Cathie Filomeno, consumer affairs representative, Ronetco Shop Rite. The other segment of the field trip required the students to shop for food to feed a family of four for four days, using a budget $100. In classes prior to the trip, the students learned from a Ronetco representative about proper nutrition, grocery shopping and the different types of food items. “This exercise was so easy to implement into our curriculum because it involved many educational concepts that we already teach, such as math, map skills, where they followed their store maps to locate certain items, reasoning, where they had to organize their lists to gather the items in the same aisles, problem solving and nutrition,” said Nancy Ruvo, third-grade teacher at Helen Morgan. “These are all things the students have never done in real life.” Throughout their shopping trip, the students were supervised by a parent volunteer, who scored the children on communication, decision-making, customer service, team building and reading skills. “It’s fun working at the problem-solving tables,” said Zoe Willis, a third-grade student. “This is my favorite field trip.” According to Filomeno, the field trip was originally designed for fourth- and fifth-graders, but when state tests were revised to include third-graders, the store expanded the program to help schools reinforce the same concepts found on the tests. “It gets them started earlier on thinking skills,” said Filomeno. “The children enjoy the program. It’s a fun day for them because they are in charge and it’s an independent exercise. They’re learning without knowing it, and that’s our little secret.”