From art auctions to selling cookbooks, the spirit of entrepreneurship is alive and well in classrooms across the country. Using skills needed to run a business, including budgeting, planning, marketing, logistics and sales, grade-school students are building businesses and raising money for local charities. Photos and program descriptions courtesy of The Learning Partnership.
Bliss Carman Middle School - Fredericton, N.B.
Amplifying Awareness
Teacher: Mrs. Lingley
Business Partners: Alexandre
Morote, BMO and Mike Thorne, Flexiway
Amplifying Awareness designed and created a locally
manufactured wooden amplifier to sell called the EnviroAmp. It was
originally designed to work with iPhone and iPod but it also works with a
Blackberry and other smartphones. The amplifier is environmentally-friendly and
portable.
Students focused all of their efforts on Amplifying
Awareness for their chosen charity, Dots NB, a mental health non-profit
organization that focuses on children and adolescents.
Students identified their strengths and selected one
sub-committee to focus on, allowing for greater collaboration. Our group asked
for advice from business partners, technology mentors, administration, local
parent entrepreneur and their charity ensuring full understanding.
They used social media, including a Wordpress site and Twitter account to raise awareness.
They continually updated the website with pictures and blogged their progress.
Twitter allowed them a following and an information base for customers,
enabling them to buy EnviroAmps.
CBC television attended and filmed one of their meetings,
interviewing students, the teacher and the business partner. The interview was
featured on CBC local television on April 17th, 2013.
Garden Creek Elementary School - Fredericton, N.B.
Creeker Chairs for Charity
Teacher: Suzanne Gallant
Business partner: Ruth and Arnold Acton, Premium Paint Limited
The team consisted of 26 students in
Mrs. Gallant’s Grade 5 class and their business partner Premium Paint, along with their charity of choice
Stan Cassidy Kids Foundation. In creating the one of a kind, hand painted
chairs, the students reached out to family, community and thrift stores to find
the chairs that best fit their personalities. They had to marry their designs
and colours to fit their chair’s character. Since the chairs were to be
auctioned off individually, the students had to do their best product ever.
The students reached out to
businesses for advice on paint products, colours and the proper procedure from
sanding to varnishing, With the assistance of the charity snf their affiliate,
the students were able to maximize the sale of their product though their
communication network, their clientele and the Board of Directors. Many
community members donated the chairs to further the students’ cause.
Prior to Auction Night, the students
were invited to visit their charity and see how the venture could impact the
lives of the “Stan Cassidy kids”. The exhilaration from this visit, the
media coverage and their heightened personal spirit carried over to make the evening
a magical event. The venture was not only available to those attending
but, through online bidding, outside community members were able to participate.
Le Marchant St. Thomas Elementary School - Halifax, N.S.
Backpacks For the Homeless / Recipes
From Around the World
Before becoming a part of the
Entrepreneurial Adventure program, the class had already been brainstorming
ideas and ways to get involved in helping their community for the year, based
on the Grade 6 Social Studies curriculum covering Global Citizenship. The
students decided they wanted to help the homeless in Halifax.
When brainstorming ways to do that,
the idea for making backpacks containing ‘care packages’ came up. The
class unanimously supported this idea, which became a natural fit for
Entrepreneurial Adventure program. This is where the idea of producing
and selling a class cookbook came up.
The cookbook became a social studies
project, where each student was already researching the culture of different
countries from around the world, so they added recipes into their
research. The students compiled all of the recipes they gathered into one
cookbook and called it “Recipes From Around the World”. All profits
received from these cookbooks went straight to our fund for the ‘Backpacks for
the Homeless’.
The students learned about, from each
other, all the different global cultures they researched for their
cookbook. They learned from their business partner, Cale Wadden, all
about entrepreneurialism and what an entrepreneur actually does. They
also learned about the reality of hard work, research, the level of risk
involved, and the highs and lows that all entrepreneurs encounter with their
many ventures. They learned how to set goals in terms of cookbook sales,
and most were able to meet or come close to meeting their personal goals.
Guy Brown Public Elementary School - Hamilton, Ont.
On With the Show
Teacher: Bert Neale
Business partner: Max Rutherford, MJR Systems
The students in Mr. Neale’s Grade 6
class at Guy Brown Public Elementary School can already add ‘entrepreneur’ to
their resume. The 23 students became part of The Learning
Partnership’s Entrepreneurial Adventure in December, which partnered them up
with a member of the local business community to take part in an
entrepreneurial venture.
After brainstorming about 50 ideas,
including events or products, the students managed to narrow the list down to
three ideas then put it to a vote. In the end, the art show came out victorious.
“The reason for their decision was to
get the community involved,” said Bert Neale, the class’s teacher. “They liked
the idea of having a live and silent auction.” The class chose to support
two charities: Kiva and CityKidz. Before deciding on the two charities,
the students did online research, such as reviewing different charities on
charity-rating websites.
The students were very keen on the
marketing of the event. Many students, on their own initiative, created and
printed business cards and posters on their own time at home. They saw
the value in promoting the event and tried to keep it fresh. As the event
approaches the class hoped to build the excitement about the art show even
more. The promoting of the event provided many students an opportunity to
take a leading role within small groups, and build confidence in themselves and
their ability to speak to others, both peers and members of the community.
Being actively involved with the
process of organizing and running an event such as the art show, the students
have gained an understanding of what it is like to run a business
(successfully) and have developed and gained real life entrepreneurial
experience.
Holy Redeemer Catholic School - Ottawa, Ont.
Cooking With the Class
Their venture was a cookbook
containing over 250 recipes collected from Ottawa-based restaurateurs,
politicians, news anchors, radio personalities, students and parents, and other
individuals involved in the project.
The students did not want to create
just another cookbook. They wanted to create a cookbook that stood out from the
rest, didn’t already exist, and would attract attention. The unique value
in the cookbook is the number of local celebrities, such as the Prime Minister
of Canada, the Premier of Ontario, or an Olympic gold medalist contributing
their favourite recipes.
Students designed and created an
original cover, an Ottawa Friend logo to make each famous recipe contributor
stand out, created their own food related comic strips to feature in the book,
as well as culinary jokes to make the cookbook more representative of them.
They created a lovely introductory
letter for the front of the cookbook thanking the purchaser, educating them of
the cause, and letting them know what was in store as they perused and cooked
with the book. They also worked hard to generate advertisements and
sponsorships for their venture.
The venture expected to generate
revenue from the sales of printed copies of the cookbook; and additionally from
sales of advertising spots inside the cookbook to local businesses.
The students chose Shepherds of
Good Hope because of a
guest speaker who had come to the school in the fall from that organization.
The students learned of how Shepherds does so much, for so many, with so
little. They realized this organization for the homeless and needy is a rather
needy organization itself. They immediately wanted to help.
Being children, almost all of them
had visited the Children’s Hospital of
Eastern Ontario at
some point already in their lives. They decided they also wanted to help this foundation
in order to support something close to their hearts, other
children.
St. Richard Catholic School - Toronto, Ont.
Teacher: Lesley Alvares
Business partner: John Dickie, Apple Canada and Kaneff Golf
The students planned, developed and
created a recycling venture with a focus on turning old items into new
treasures that could be sold to raise money for their charity, ShareLife.
This venture was selected as a tribute to the culture of the school, which had
achieved a gold status as an eco-school.
Students took on various roles within
the company. Some wrote business letters to local stores seeking
donations and delivered them personally to the managers. The marketing and
promotion committee created a catchy presentation, involving a cheer, a short
talk and a visual demonstration of items that would be sold at the event.
The operation and production
committee worked to create a display of products, which were showcased during
classroom presentation. The event planning committee created a timeline
of activities and ensured the business remained aligned with its goals and
focus.
Blessed Trinity Catholic School - Toronto, Ont.
Kids Helping Kids
Teacher: Mr. Fietta and Ms. G.
Osborne
Business partner: Sophie Jardine, BMO Financial Group
The Grade 5/6 class at Blessed
Trinity Catholic School used the Entrepreneurial Adventure program to create a
business venture called “Kids Helping Kids”. This was a fundraising venture to
raise $800 for Sick Kids Hospital through various activities and events
at their school.
Activities included a “Lucky Dip”,
where students had a chance at dipping their hands into mystery bags, filled
with many different prizes to win. A raffle was also held, with tickets
sold to students for a chance at great prizes including gift cards, toys, and a
grand prize package of a scooter and an iPod Touch. Other activities
involved a scavenger hunt and house league school spirit events. The class also
ran a mini convenience store with freezies, popcorn, juice boxes, and sour keys
to sell to their fellow students during school hours.
Start-up funds to run each activity
were raised through donations from students, parents and teachers. To spread
the word of their venture, the class created posters and ran broadcast
announcements in school.
The class surpassed their goal and
raised a total of $881.93 for Sick Kids Hospital.
Sprucecourt Public School - Toronto, ON
Shirt Frenzy By The Creative 26
Teacher: Carol Ball
Business Partner: Mary Chong, Revelo Bikes, IBM Retiree
To promote financial literacy, the
Grade 5 students at Sprucecourt Public School decided to create frenzy at their
school – “Shirt Frenzy” that is – and sell as much t-shirts as possible to
deliver the important message to “Be Money Wise”, while raised funds for ArtHeart –
a local Regent Park organization that provides art lessons and meals to
students and their parents with the community.
With the help of their teacher, Carol
Ball, and local business mentor, Mary Chong of Revelo Bikes, the students – who
named themselves the Creative 26 – created the slogan, “Be Money Wise”, and
designed a brand logo to include on their professionally printed t-shirt
products to sell to their school community. Start-up funds to purchase
their new t-shirt products were generated by students writing persuasive
letters to local businesses asking for donations.
Innovative brainstorming ideas for
creating awareness about their venture came through during the planning
process, including social media and crowd funding. However, the students
quickly learned the importance of assessing the risks of their ideas and
eventually created visual displays, signage, and sales stations within the
school to account for school rules and student safety.
The Creative 26 were successful in
their venture and raised over $1500.00 for ArtHeart.
By taking responsibility for various
roles (i.e., sales, marketing, finance, production, and project management) the
students learned, first-hand, key entrepreneurial business skills including
brainstorming, goal setting, team work and partnership, as well as the
relevance and application of math, writing, and art.
Glenbow Elementary School - Cochrane, Alta.
Warrior Paint: A Culture of Caring
Teachers: Colleen Heschel-Ball,
Sherri Rinkel-Mackay
Business Partners: Christie Saunders, BMO Financial Group and Cindy Overland,
Iyahrhe Nakoda of Food Bank Society
In First Nations’ traditions,
warriors are often defined as men or women who embody the characteristics of
bravery, leadership, peacemaking and generosity. Warriors, in this way, are
often those who care for others in a community.
Warrior Paint is an initiative of
Grade 1-4 First Nations and Metis students from Glenbow School. As part of a
First Nations and Metis art study, the students created group paintings
incorporating historical photographs of their ancestors.
The entire venture was completed in a
special cultural school program called Roots and Wings. The students (ages 5-
10 years) in this program meet for an hour and a half, once a week.
The goal of this venture was for
students to learn how to create a business plan, learn marketing techniques,
and foster self-esteem while planting seeds for their future endeavors.
Students achieved this by researching images of their ancestors, which they
used to create paintings to inspire their home community.
With guidance from Christie Saunders
from BMO, the students were mentored in creating a business plan and marketing
strategies for selling greeting cards, which were created from these paintings.
All proceeds of the sale of these cards will benefit the Iyahrhe Nakoda
Food Bank Society.