Fourteen teams of Croton fifth-grader recently turned the school’s old gymnasium into what looked and sounded like the floor of the NYC Stock Exchange. Each enthusiastic team was trying to entice visitors to invest in their Mutual Fund.

“We’ve got hot stocks, do you?” “We make your money magical.” “We make money so easy, even a monkey can do it!” These are the slogans, and come-ons, from three of the Mutual Funds—Hot Stocks, Magical Money, and The Money Makers, respectively.

The Mutual Fund Fair is the culmination of an interdisciplinary lesson that requires students to choose five stocks and follow their progress over a period of time. Students are given a budget and maintain an EXCEL graph of their stocks’ performance, explains math teacher Katie Brennan, adding that this is part of a state-wide “Stock Market Game” competition that continues until May 23.

The Mutual Fund Fair, however, requires more than picking and tracking stocks. According to student Rebecca Raskob, “It’s a lot of work,” including making a poster, working in the booth, and designing a brochure to give to the “customers.” Rebecca’s “colleague,” Hot Stocks CEO Joely Singer-Aguanno, remarked about the need to come up with a clever company name and slogan. Visitors to the Hot Stocks booth were able to purchase shares in Apple, Tiffany & Co., Hasbro, Nike, and Aflac.

Over in booth 9, MOJ representatives Mary Labrador, Olivia Jerutis, and Jian Gallo-Kohn encouraged Olivia’s grandmother, Therese Marren, to invest in their mutual fund. “We assure you that MOJ is a very trustworthy company, and your money is safe with us,” they said. The MOJ portfolio includes Starbucks, Apple, World Wrestling Entertainment, Pier 1 Imports, and American Eagle.

(Report courtesy of Chris Heath/BOCES.)