Starr City Class Blog | Keeping connected with the happenings in Starr City

Lily wishes everyone an Awesome October and a Happy Halloween.

I’m Jan Starr, and my class at Lawton Elementary School in Ann Arbor, Michigan is named Starr City. (Probably not too difficult to figure out why.)

I live in Dexter, MI, and have four dogs and three cats. I know, crazy, right? Well, I didn’t get them all at once. LOL I’ll post photos of them at a later date.

This is my 14th year at Lawton, and my 24th year teaching 5th grade. Except for one year at the beginning of my career when I was the computer tech at Haisley Elementary, I’ve only taught 5th grade. I never wanted to teach kids of any other age, and my frequent explanation is, “I can have in depth, serious discussions with my class, and they still love to play with toys.” What could be better? 🙂

I am probably most well known by most kids for the classroom economy that I teach each year. Students earn “Stars” for classroom jobs, and spend them at auctions and businesses that we have during the second semester. Products to be sold in the businesses are made by the kids; they can own a business of their own, or have a partnership. Parents are always invited to shop when our businesses are open. Auctions occur on alternate weeks of businesses, and it’s a great opportunity to get rid of those kid things you don’t want at your house. But of course, they will bring home “new” treasures.

18 thoughts on “About Starr City”

Great to know about the ‘Business’. Does the partnership mean you could do a Business with someone else? Does it also mean you could join together other peoples Business? Ex. Masco takes care of Delta and other companies.

-Jahow Yu

Thanks for the blog. Look forward to a great year!

What a cool idea!

Thanks so much. This should be a fun way to communicate.

Thank you for setting up this communication tool. I look forward, as does Owen, to a wonderful year. He came home from school the very first day just glowing with excitement over the opportunity to earn what he called “Starbucks.” Your classroom economy couldn’t demonstrate more fully your sentiment regarding a 5th grader’s ability to reason while still allowing themselves to play.
Please let me know if there is anything I can help with prior to sign-up at curriculum night.