AARON HALE / Special to the Eagle

Howard Jordan and Steve Cormier prepare hamburgers and hotdogs for Mrs. Pena's fifth grade class. Cormier was the sole representative of the losing adult team to reward the class on their Stock Market Challenge victory.

AARON HALE / Special to the Eagle

Katie Kirstein and Mariel Sanchez enjoy the cookout at Tommie Barfield Elementary School.

AARON HALE / Special to the Eagle

The winning team of the Stock Market Challenge, the Stock Market Millionaires, stand together at the cookout in their honor. The team members were fifth-graders Ashley Schneller, Savannah Garner, Nicolette Iannotta, Xavier Vecchio and Colin Brown.

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On Wall Street the reward for making good stock market decisions is wealth and security. For some fifth-graders at Tommie Barfield Elementary, the reward was an hour of hamburgers and hot dogs.

On May 14, Mabel Pena’s fifth-grade class reaped the benefits of performing well in a stock market challenge against an adult team. The class was treated to hamburgers and hot dogs right off the grill compliments of the losing adult team.

The cookout meant a diversion from normal classroom activities, which according to Pena is a probably a good thing.

Pena said her students have been easily distracted since the end of standardized testing in March.

The stock market challenge was organized by Pena and Howard Jordan, vice president of Investments at Raymond James and Associates, Inc., as a way to give Pena’s students real world math experience.

In the challenge, four teams from Pena’s class competed with one adult team to see who could perform best in the stock market.

According to Jordan, each team started with $100,000 to hypothetically invest in the stock market. Due to a struggling economy, the trick for each team was to invest in companies with stock falling the least.

The winning team was the Stock Market Millionaires from Pena’s class. Team members included Ashley Schneller, Savannah Garner, Nicolette Iannotta, Xavier Vecchio and Colin Brown.

The Stock Market Millionaires’ other reward is to appear on Jordan’s local television program, “Wall Street Wrap Up.”