Project: Young Entrepreneurs
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In 2023, the 4th-6th graders embarked on a project cycle for entrepreneurship, learning about the process of building a business. They brainstormed goals ("What am I passionate about?", "How will my final product impact my community?"), then they streamlined their ideas, set goals, and finally, came up with a business plan. They brainstormed everything from a unique and memorable company name, product/service, target market, expected sales, expenses, and pricing, while receiving feedback about scalability, cost, materials, labor, incentives, and USP.
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In the Graphic Design module, students were introduced to the concept of corporate identity and how the idea behind a product or a service can be communicated effectively through images, typography, and color. They came up with prototypes or menus, and modified them. They worked through color schemes and thumbnail design to make design critique and decision making easier. Our students saw their initial ideas grow and develop based on feedback.
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For the school fair, the other grades wanted to showcase their own businesses too!
The kindergarten brought in family recipes from around the world and created them together, to learn about different families. The first grade learned about natural resources, by recovering cooking oil from the fonda and mixing it with candle wax to make handmade candles! They even educated visitors about pollution with an infographic.
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In the Finance segment, the students learned to balance budgets, calculate unit cost, learned about new businesses, and the difference between revenue and profit. They conducted a market survey with classmates through interviews to gather feedback. They also researched prices of competition, worked out target market, and considered cost. We also invited a CEO from the local community as a guest speaker to share about his experiences and discuss entrepreneurship as it occurs in the real world.
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They worked on marketing strategies to promote their event. Finally, they wrote and presented a business pitch using the persuasion strategies from their ELA/writing curriculum to try to entice potential clients. We asked them to introduce themselves, share the passion, explain the product/service, and sell the business in a creative way!
With all grades and businesses combined, we raised $1203 in just one hour! With this money, approximately 150 books of various genres and encyclopedias were purchased for all grades, housed in our new library, as well as outdoor sports equipment and indoor classroom materials. The school also matched some funds to purchase materials for new playground equipment.
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