For one day only, young entrepreneurs at Greenfield Junior High opened up their businesses for the biggest shopping event of the school year. If you’ve ever witnessed it in-person, you might say that Market Day rivals the likes of Black Friday. The shopping event ignites an electrifying feeling on Greenfield Junior’s campus. Teachers and staff eagerly waited in line outside Laurie Doran-Frederick’s classroom while her students put the final touches on their products and business truck displays.
“Their goal is to sell out and make a decent profit,” Doran-Frederick said.
She teaches the Family Consumer Sciences/Life Skills course at Greenfield Junior. In the weeks leading up to Market Day, her students studied jobs and economics. For their final project, each class period was divided into seven groups, and every group was responsible for developing their own business. Madelyn Miller’s team named their business, “Marea De Primavera.” They sold paper flowers, flower pens, picture frames, teacher supply packs, and cookies. She says the whole experience taught her valuable entrepreneurial skills.
“Really how to manage a business and how to price products, so you make a profit without it being too expensive,” Miller said.
There was a large assortment of items for sale, including food, candy, school supplies, accessories, house decor, and more. The businesses were required to sell at least two DIY items. Collin Ton and his classmates created “Sweet Delights.” Their business sold cookies, ham and cheese sandwiches, dreamcatchers, and Greenfield Junior High bracelets. Ton says his group worked really well together and remained collaborative, which he feels is essential to having a successful business.
“Teamwork is definitely important. If you don’t have teamwork, your business is going to fail,” he said.
Instead of using real money, Market Day customers were given colorful Bingo chips that had a value ranging from 25 cents to a dollar. Students kept track of their bingo chips to see how much of a profit they made by the end of the day. The teams with the largest profit margin earned bragging rights.
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