mexican marketplace

this month grade 2 is learning about Mexico! today was a busy day. we had an amazing taco lunch which was provided by one of the very generous moms. she had corn and wheat tortillas which she heated up, then you had a choice of beef or chicken then there was sour cream, cheese, salsa, tomatoes and lettuce. it was sooooo yummy!! after lunch the kids had a 'mexican marketplace'. everyone brought in a towel which they laid on the floor and some stuff from their house that they were willing to trade for different things. i wandered around the market and saw some stuff i really wanted, but i hadn't brought anything to trade. so i went and got my prize box and attempted to trade anything for a bag of nacho cheese chips. haha. unfortunately the student who had them could not be persuaded to trade (he had already traded someone else for them). so i traded an eraser for a bandana. i used the bandana as my 'mat' and set up shop. i became popular very quickly!! haha. i ended up with some weird christmas picture frame, a plastic elephant, a 'mani' figurine (from Ice Age) that talks, a beaded necklace, some random book about a plane, a book of daytime prayers, 2 brownies, a headband, 2 hair clips, a shrek toy, a broken eraser, some stickers, a plastic dinosaur....and probably some other crap. :D it was fun! the kids had a blast and were so excited to show all of their friends the things they got. one of the sweet things i observed was a student who has autism that approached another special ed student and wanted to trade something. she had an old (somewhat ratty) pair of black heeled shoes. the convo went a little like this:
"I'll trade you these shoes for this doll's dress"
"shoes, no fit me"
"You can give them to your little sister"
"ok. my sister like new shoes"
she is going to be a sales lady!!! hehe i love it!!!!