The kids of today may very well be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, especially if they’re taught the value of a dollar at a young age. Linda Line, a third grade teacher at Willow Avenue Elementary School, has been teaching her students how to invent their own products and then sell them at a market as part of the grade’s economy unit.
About six years ago, Line was conducting an Internet search for ideas on how to teach economy terms (such as wants, needs, supply, and demand) as part of an economy unit. She came across a lesson plan geared toward fifth graders, but she modified it to bring it down to a third grade level. The unit is taught in two parts.
In the first, students apply for jobs, go on interviews, receive offer letters, and earn a weekly salary. They’re also responsible for paying for expenses such as the rent of their desk, utilities, taxes, as well as insurance. The students also learn how to write checks. The money may be fake, but the lessons are real.
As part of the second half of the unit, the students create a business with a partner or as individual entrepreneurs. They develop a business name and either invent a new product or improve one that already exists. The students survey each other to find out if there’s interest for a product. They learn how to market their product by creating business cards and posters. The students mass produce the products and sell them in a marketplace, or in the third grade wing of the elementary school.
Among the items the kids produced and sold were chocolate covered candy, brownies with frosting, mixed drinks such as soda and Kool Aid, jewelry, key chains, cupcakes that looked like hamburgers, and a yearbook on CD.
Parents were the first to walk through the marketplace, followed by the students and teachers in the other classrooms, who sign up for a time slot so the market doesn’t become too crowded. Even district administrators, like superintendent Neal Miller, walk away with a handful of items.
The money raised by the students is real and goes to a worthy cause. This year, $1,860 was donated to a family with Willow Avenue students.
The real world may seem overwhelming for some adults, but the students enjoy the experience because it’s taught at a level they can understand. The students attend the market as second graders and have something to look forward to the following school year.
“They really are learning, hands on, how a real economy works,” Line said. “And they’re learning to make choices.”
