Rockford — ’Twas two weeks before Christmas and all through the school, folks clamored to buy student-made objects of yule.
That pretty much sums up the recent holiday market event at Rockford’s Cannonsburg Elementary, during which fourth-graders got a crash course in supply and demand by plying their wares to an eager customer base of students and parents.
The schoolwide event was the culmination of a social studies unit on economics, explained fourth-grade teacher Carrie Tenbrink, who organized the market with fellow teacher Lauren Arnett.
“We studied the economic system of the United States — supply and demand — back in the fall, and the kids were really interested in doing a holiday market,” Tenbrink said.
She said the market usually takes place outside, during the fall. But this year, students wanted to do something a little different.
“The kids were really excited about the idea of pulling in the holidays, so this is our first time doing it,” Tenbrink said.
‘The experience of customers, and having to make all this and selling out — it’s all good.’
— fourth-grader Connor Cumings
Supply & Demand in Action
Ahead of the market students worked in groups of three or four to develop ideas for products to sell. They drew up designs on paper, then set about securing funding.
The students brought in $5 each for supplies, and the total was split evenly among every group. Once the money was divided, supplies were ordered from Amazon or picked up in quick trips to Dollar General or Meijer. The groups had to stick to their budget, and they determined product prices based on a need to recoup expenses.
“When their supplies came they made a prototype, just to make sure it would turn out the way they were hoping,” Tenbrink said. “And then they put together more of an assembly-line-type production model to get them all finished in time.”
Students’ products included bookmarks, bath bombs, bracelets, ornaments, keychains and more, and on the day of the market, each group set up a booth and tried to sell everything they could to their parents and classmates.
The groups were asked to come up with incentives, too, including raffle drawings, buy-one-get-one deals and bonus items like sweet treats. Turns out few customers needed any extra incentive to buy up the holiday items; almost every group sold out of its product before the hour-long sale was even half over.
Connor Cumings and his group ran out of holiday keychains so quickly that they were forced to make more on the spot. But Connor didn’t mind.
“Making the keychains, the experience of customers, and having to make all this and selling out — it’s all good,” he said.
Students in Ava Dorsey’s group were split on what product to offer. Some wanted to sell bookmarks, while others wanted to go with bracelets. So they decided to compromise and sell both.
“We put the bracelets through the top hole of the bookmark,” said Ava. “We put the beads on, tied it, and then it’s just a bookmark and a bracelet.”
She added that free gummy worms were also included as an incentive.
Eddie Smagacz, Luke Koster and Finley Dykhouse sold bracelets too, and they also sold out.
“It took mostly the whole time, but we had, like, 200 bracelets and we sold every single one,” Eddie said.
“Look how much money we have!” shouted Finley, clutching the group’s earnings as the event started to wind down.
Funds from the market will be tallied, and the group that brought in the most money will get to choose a local organization to receive a $100 donation, said Tenbrink. The rest of the money will be used to fund a fourth-grade field trip in the spring.
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