Treats used to teach elementary students basic economics - KOAM TV 7

Some high school students use Halloween treats to teach fourth graders at Mark Twain Elementary in Carthage about surplus and scarcity.

The high school students are part of the Carthage Future Business Leaders of America helping the elementary students build haunted ginger bread houses, white icing ghosts, gargoyle Twizzlers and chocolate bar coffins.  Students also had to create a poster to market their house.

"It's right around Halloween so we just thought Halloween-themed spook houses, they could really be interactive with it and still learn all the terms they needed to learn," says Emmalee Smith, a junior at Carthage High School.  "The most challenging part is probably whenever we had them buying their supplies for their spook houses, and they didn't understand that once you're out of money that's it, and you don't get to buy anything else."

The top two groups in each class presented their houses in front of the school and were judged by teachers.

Organizers say it's all about the kids having fun with learning.

"The most rewarding part is whenever, like, you see they learn, like, what you - we're trying to get them to learn and see that they are having fun with it while we're having fun with it and it's still educational," Smith says.

The winning house - the Strangler's Haunted Mansion.