SHARE
Fourth grade is the year that kids start learning about money and budgets and saving at our school. Throughout the year they work at jobs to earn Grizzly Bucks. Jobs like, banker or homework checker, etc. In addition to earning money through conventional jobs, they also create products or services to sell and then parents and other grades (they are given ‘money’ to do their shopping) get to come shopping at the market day they host twice a year. They have a $20 (real currency) budget for supplies and they have to be creative about what they want to offer.
Some kids offer big items like wooden letter blocks that take a lot of time to make so they can charge more for them. Other kids make much smaller items (pencil toppers, stress balls, rubber band bracelets, etc.) that they charge less for but they make up for it in volume. Still others provide a service, like glitter tattoos or nail painting, where there is no time spent up front making the product but they can’t do as many sales because each one takes longer. So many things to consider! I love that the kids need to think this through and come up with a strategy.
Kate was very strategic in what she offered. She is not so detail oriented so bigger projects that take awhile to make are not her forte. She opted for the quick hit, high volume sale. She cut strips out of paint chips and made cute little matchbook covers which she decorated with stars cut out left over paint chips. Inside the matchbook cover she inserted small post it notes. It was a cute project and she sold out quickly. While she liked the fact she sold all of her products she was not really interested in raising too much money. She decided long ago that she really wanted to use her money to buy a special lunch date with her teacher. Since that was auctioned off before market day (she did ‘win’ and she is beyond excited) any money she earned at the sale was gravy.
The added bonus for Kate is that I’m pretty sure she finished her holiday shopping at the sale. Well done kid!