March 3, 2009

Mrs. Dunlap’s third grade class learned about entrepreneurship from two Roosevelt High School experts, Jessica Ryan and Ashley Deighan from Mr. Pfeiffer’s Marketing Education class (DECA).

Jessica was returning to her Longcoy roots as a Longcoy alumna who spent her third grade year with Mrs. Dunlap.

 

Jessica and Ashley started teaching with the book, Lemonade

for Sale by Stuart J. Murphy. The book explains how a group of

children start a lemonade stand and work through the problems their

business encounters. The third graders also learned the vocabulary

that explains how a business runs. They worked with bar graphs to

understand how to collect and display data visually. Some third

graders even chose “entrepreneurship” as a challenge spelling word!

The real excitement came when the DECA students challenged

the third graders to start their own business. They decided their

purpose would be to raise money to buy something for Longcoy.

They voted to name their business Yum ‘n Fun. The students wisely

chose a bake sale with hot cocoa instead of trying to market icy

lemonade at the end of February! Yum ‘n Fun set prices, and

developed an advertising blitz. Signs blanketed the school and

morning announcement invited Longcoy students to bring their

quarters and enjoy some lunchtime treats. They also made up a list

of needed supplies and asked parents for donations of hot cocoa mix,

cookies, hot cups, spoons, etc. Yum ‘n Fun knew this would increase

their profits. As usual, Longcoy’s parents rose to the challenge and

donated nearly all the items needed for the two-day bake sale that

ran during all three lunch periods. The students kept track of their

inventory each day as the supplies arrived. Jessica and Ashley

supervised the bake sale with their set up committees, cocoa stirrers,

order takers, etc. The great news is Yum ‘n Fun’s profits for the twoday

bake sale was $208.25! The students look forward to purchasing

something special for Longcoy with the money they earned as reallife

entrepreneurs!

 

Ashley and Jessica came back after the bake sale and had the

third graders evaluate their teaching. It was a great opportunity for

Yum ‘n Fun to show off what they learned. They were also excited to

eat the donuts Ashley and Jessica brought but the best surprise was

yet to come. Ashley and Jessica presented each student with their

own personal copy of the book, Lemonade for Sale.