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Hilltop students learn pretzel economics
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Mike D'Amico, operations suppport for Auntie Anne's Pretzels, passed out soft pretzels to third-grade students at Hilltop Elementary School April 29. D'Amico was there as part of a program to help the students understand how a business works.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Third-grade students at Hilltop Elementary School enjoy lemonade and Auntie Anne's pretzels they hand-rolled during a presentation from the company on how a business works. The event rounded out the social studies unit on economics.
By ABBY SLANKER
For the third-graders at Hilltop Elementary School, studying economics paid off in a twisted sort of way. As in, pretzels.
To round out their social studies unit on economics, the students had the opportunity to eat soft pretzels in class as Auntie Anne’s Pretzels visited to their classrooms April 29 to explain how the company applies economics to its business.
Joe Bada, regional manager of Chestnut Land Company, a franchisee that owns 35 Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Jenn Gemmell, corporate trainer for Auntie Anne’s and Mike D’Amico, operations support for Auntie Anne’s, brought pretzels and lemonade for all the students.
Each student rolled their own pretzel and it was then placed in a “magic oven” until ready to eat.
Bada, Gemmell and D’Amico also showed the students a video of the history of Auntie Anne’s and later asked the students what they learned, whether they ever tried Auntie Anne’s pretzels and what was their favorite flavor.
While studying economics, the third-grade students focused on what a business is, why there is division of labor, what are the factors of production and how to make a profit.
They also used a PowerPoint presentation with Auntie Anne’s economic information to help understand how a business works.
The students also tied the Auntie Anne’s presentation to math to show which product the company sells the most of. They each created a graph that showed how many pretzels, dips, pretzel dogs, drinks and pretzel sticks the company sells.
At the end of the presentation, students were given a certificate identifying each of them as an Auntie Anne’s honorary pretzel roller.