Byron Center — Marshall Elementary’s recent Market Day buzzed with eager shoppers like a farmer’s market on a summer Saturday morning.
Parents and family members swarmed the variety of tables run by second-graders selling creative handmade products for the low, low prices of one to two tickets.
Second-graders learned about economics and marketing to prepare for their Market Day, including supply and demand, pricing and making enticing artwork to help sell products.
Several colorful poster boards displayed clever slogans and company logos designed to help entice potential buyers eyeing products in the gym.
One sign read,“Our flying feather pens are flying everywhere,” made by a trio of entrepreneurs: Brycen Donovan, Emma Goldsby and Anne Bonzheim. This product was one of several options from a list provided by their teachers.
“They got to choose what they wanted to make and worked with a partner or two to personalize,” teacher Kinsey Bykerk said. “We spent a few days producing their products, with help from parent volunteers, and then spent another day or two learning about advertising, billboards and how to write slogans to entice people to buy their products.”
Students also had to decide how many feather pens, bookmarks, pet rocks or musical instruments they needed to make to meet the demand.
As one student explained, “If a lot of people want what you made, you have to make a lot.”
Brycen added: “If you’re all out of something, that’s scarcity.”
He and his fellow small-business owners decided “four tickets was way too much and two tickets wasn’t enough, so three was perfect,” to charge for their feather pens — regular pens featuring feathers affixed with duct tape.
“Feathers are free ‘cause they come from birds and pens are pretty cheap,” Brycen said.
Maracas made from dried beans inside plastic eggs went for one ticket, but went up to two tickets if you wanted a maraca with a handle hand-crafted from two spoons and duct tape.
If another group decided to make the same product, groups had to figure out how to stand out amongst the competition. By the end of the hour, several tables decided to have sales to help clear their inventory while still making a profit.
A little lesson in business wrapped it all up, Bykerk said: “Students add up their tickets at the end, and we talk about if they made enough ‘money’ and if their supply met the demand.”
Read more from Byron Center:
• Leaving her mark on the world with watercolors, pens and pencils
• What do owls eat? Check out what they spit up
