Kelloggsville — Fourth-grader Blessed Harris admitted it was tough to compete against a lemonade stand offering free candy, but she was still proud of what her group accomplished.
“Maybe the next group will do better,” Blessed said as she and her group began to pack up their poster advertising their tasty drink.
While the next team did not have candy either, they did have their own marketing strategy featuring the popular Bluey cartoon characters on their posters.
“Everyone loves Bluey,” said Ximena Casteneda as she put up the poster. “So we decided to use the characters to help create interest in our stand.”
The lemonade wars between the fourth-grade classes of Rachel Coon and Emily Oppenhuizen at Central Kelloggsville is the culmination of an economics lesson.
The annual project incorporates the book “The Lemonade War” by Jacqueline Davies. The story is about two siblings who operate competing lemonade stands. Sprinkled throughout the book are economic lessons and vocabulary.
“They learn about crafting their business, about marketing and then afterwards, we will talk about the cost of cups and supplies and whether we had a profit or loss,” Oppenhuizen said.
Putting Their Plans Into Action
The students spent about two weeks working through “The Lemonade War” book and its lessons.
Students in each class divided up into groups of four or five and spent about a week working on their lemonade stand project, making a business plan, budget, marketing and advertising.
During the two-day sale, groups rotated through the school’s three lunch periods.
Oppenhuizen’s class had a classroom vote on whether to offer an incentive, similar to what the siblings did in the book, she said. The students decided to bring in candy to help encourage sales.
In Coon’s class, each student group decided on a marketing plan. Some students relied on popular TV characters, such as Ximena’s group, while others considered incentives.
Armani Tran’s group chose to offer free candy with each purchase, helping to level the playing field with Oppenhuizen’s class during the final lunch period.
“We thought it was something that would boost our income a little more,” said Armani as he went around the lunchroom promoting the stand to students and staff.
Although items like cups, candy, and lemonade are donated, the students still estimated the items’ value and subtracted it from the total sales, Oppenhuizen said. This helped them analyze whether offering an incentive actually increased their profits or if they would have made more without one, she said.
“I’ve learned how to give change and how to sell,” Ximena said of the experience. “You learn different aspects of a business and how to do this.”
Oppenhuizen’s class won the war but the bigger winner is Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, which was selected by the students through a vote to receive the money earned from the lemonade wars. Oppenhuizen said other charities that have received funds in the past have been Make-A-Wish and Habitat for Humanity.
The friendly drink competition brought in nearly $435 — the highest total in the three years the fourth-grade competition has been running, she said.
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