Fifth Graders Explore Entrepreneurship in Economics Unit

As part of the fifth-grade Humanities curriculum, students partake in a three-week-long Economics unit. The goal of the unit is to familiarize them with the fundamental skills essential to being an entrepreneur. It’s a very robust lesson as the students: 

• learn how to create and present prototypes
• to apply marketing and advertising techniques
• generate business plans
• complete job applications and interview for specialized jobs
• conduct market research studies
• take out loans
• monitor daily profit and loss statements
• invest and become shareholders
• produce and sell products using innovative pop-up shop designs
• and calculate gross and net profits.  

Phase One

The students created prototypes of their products — the creativity and ingenuity ranged from earrings, stationery, and dog toys. 

The students presented to their classmates a description of their product, cost per unit, list of materials, and steps in production. They also practiced persuasion as they pitched their classmates on their must-have products. Then the students created infomercials to sell their products! 

Phase Two

The next phase of the unit was the formation of the companies that would sell the various prototypes. Upper School students from the Fellowships in Business and Finance interviewed the Middle School Economics students to determine who would best be suited for the jobs of webmaster, advertising manager, production manager, treasurer, and sales manager.

After the interviews, jobs were assigned for a total of nine entrepreneurial ventures. These companies each applied and interviewed for a business loan with Hathaway Brown Chief Financial Officer Val Hughes. Each group was awarded a business loan.  

Phase two also included production and quality control. 

Phase Three

The final phase of the Economics unit included loading products to an e-commerce site and opening sales to parents. The unit concluded with a pop-up shop for all students, faculty, and staff to shop. 

After paying back the loan, shop booth rent, utilities, interest, and the shareholders, the businesses calculated their net profits. Many of the students invested wisely and earned significant returns. The net profits from each company will be donated to the fifth grade charity of choice, Gigi’s Playhouse. The rent, utilities, and interest from their business loan will be applied toward a field trip to the West Side Market.