Recently the Concord International School community participated in its annual Market Night event. This year, it was named “Math and Market Night” to reflect the numerous math activities students participate in throughout the evening.

The highlight of Market Night is the farmers’ market set up on the stage in the cafeteria. The local grocer PCC kindly donates produce to each of our five Market Night events that occur in different elementary schools around Seattle. Students can use phony money and shop for locally sourced apples, Swiss chard, carrots, broccoli, and pears. The most fun part is that no parents are allowed in this section! Students use their own mighty math skills to give the “farmers” working the correct amount of money in exchange for the produce they want.

Aside from the market, there is a section for activities for which students get stamps on their event passport if they participate. Four out of six stamps got them entered into the raffle! Activities included a Fast-food Challenge game where students created their own meal staying with their appropriate Calorie range for the age and gender. The trick is that all the foods they are given to create a meal are options that one would find in a fast-food establishment including milkshakes, hamburgers, salads, fruit cups, and French fries. We encourage students to create meals that are within their Calorie range but also are somewhat balanced. So if students present us a meal that is a large order of French fries with a soda and argue it’s within their range, we send that back with the simple statement “Think about if your parents would let you eat that for dinner.” The goal is to show students it is quite possible to have a balanced meal with a healthy Calorie range at almost any fast-food restaurant.

Other activities included a sugar guessing game created by a Bastyr nutrition student where students and parents are asked to guess the grams of sugar and/or fat in popular snack foods like the beloved Snickers, Hot Cheetos, Carl Jr. French Fries. Participants are without fail, shocked to see the physical representation the saccharine or oily stuff that goes into their favorite foods.

We were also able to provide some oh-so-delicious Vietnamese sandwiches for families who came, which of course, came with a side of sliced oranges and carrots.

Overall the event was a complete success and all the planning and organization really paid off.