Critical Thinking, Collaborative Writing & Role Play

Children love playing games with role play. Extending that joy to collaborative writing and teamwork @ The Young Writers' Club (Jr.)

It is always a pleasure to organize activities based on places and professions that we are all familiar with. However, at times, there are lesser known professions which play a critical role but somehow are never in the limelight. Case in point, "buyer" on a grocery store's merchandising team. The tweens at the club wore the hat of a "buyer" on a merchandising team of a grocery store of their choice. They put their heads together to draft a plan.

Everyone of us has been to a grocery store at some point or the other. If the grocery store is well stocked, needless to say, we would be regular customers. If not, we would look for an alternative store right? But who decides what should be stocked on each shelf? That’s the job of the “buyer” on the merchandising team.

Teamwork as “Buyers” on a merchandising team.

The group was divided into 3 teams. Together they had to make decisions about the kind of store, choose from 3 budget options and a grocery list from which they had to pick essential items keeping an eye on the budget.

They also had to document the reasons for each decision which made the group think about various parameters and revisit their experiences of shopping in a grocery store.

Revising our idea of what the "buyer" does.

At the start, the general impression was, "how hard can it be to stock a grocery store shelf?"

Add in a budget constraint and a target customer base, things got tough. Discussions followed in all the teams and awhile later complete records were drafted and presented. Interestingly all teams had strived for healthy options the most and had left a little for small indulgences such as a chocolate bar.

This activity helped bring the tween writers together to work together, exchange ideas and arrive at a solution that was unanimously agreed. The unwritten rule but well understood rule was mutual respect and no derogatory language.

They learnt to recognize budgets and target customers. Efforts need to be directed intelligently to reap maximum benefit. What may seem like a great option for the buyer on the merchandising team may not really woo many customers and that is a red flag. Having the mentality to look towards the target customer in this case and target audience in the case of writing, is critical. Just as in the case of the grocery store, writing without paying heed to what the target audience is likely to read, would only result in wasted effort and disappointment.

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The Young Readers' Club is a book club for the 8-12 age group. We also do vocabulary building activities and mini writing lessons for a little variety!

Writing programs for the 9-12 age group- Young Writers' Club Jr.  

The Young Writers' Club program for the 13-16 age group offers a weekly platform to read and discuss curated articles from the news, observe writing approaches and practise one's writing skills.

NEW! Tween Tribune  is an online magazine for the Young Writers' Club (Jr.) program for tweens. Weekly updates of our discussions are published. Once in 6 months, the best of writing by the tween members is made available to read.

 NEW! Musings from the Young Writers' Club is an online magazine showcasing the work we do at the Young Writers' Club.

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