Monday, March 18, 2013

Marketplace Preparation

Soon after our trip to BizTown, the 5th graders in room 209 formed business teams to prepare for our next project... Marketplace! BizTown was the perfect way to prepare students to work in teams, create business plans, and collaborate with their peers. Each of the five groups spent some time brainstorming products to sell for the Made in the USA Marketplace. The students had to fill out a zoning application and have their top idea approved by myself.

Once each team's ideas were approved the students went to work creating list of items needed to make their products. Each business team was given a $50 loan to buy supplies to create their products to sell. Each team had to research local stores to find the best prices possible for their items in order to maximize their profit. Within each business team, the students had to fill out a cost projection form, philanthropy pledge, create a logo and slogan.

The students also had to work on creating a mission statement for their business team. We watched a short video about how to create an effective mission statement. Individually each student created key words that they felt were important to their business team's product.




The students then came together and shared their words with one another. From there, the students used the key words to create a mission statement. The students collaborated and decided upon a final mission statement to represent their business. The final mission statements for each business team are below. I was very impressed with the final results!













Each business team had to also create a print advertisement to advertise their product. The final print ads are below along with a prototype and can be seen in the lobby of Wickliffe! 






Stay tuned for more information about the Made in the USA Marketplace!