Financial Literacy Project: Creating a Business

This year the students are learning about the following financial components: allowance, savings, types of financial institutions, fixed & variable expenses, and calculating profit. As part of this unit, students will design, implement, and run a mock business. Students may choose to work alone or in groups of no more than 3 students. Students are given a limit of no more than $10 (real money) per student for purchasing materials for their project.

Project Components:

v Earn allowance (falcon bucks) for good behavior

v Decide to keep money in a piggy bank (backpack) or local bank (classroom)

v Develop a business plan that includes business name, goods or services sold, pricing, and logo

v Keep track of income earned, variable and fixed expenses, and profit made

v Grand opening for your business will be on ______.

On this day you will need to bring everything needed to open and run your business and be prepared for customers.

Project Overview:

You will earn allowance for good behavior in the classroom, at specials, in the hallway, at lunch, etc. The first business decision that needs to be made is where you want to keep up with your savings. You will choose either to keep up with your money in a piggy bank (your backpack) or the local bank (your math classroom).

The next business decision that needs to be made is whether or not you want to open your business alone or with business partners. You may have no more than two business partners.

Step 3 will be developing a business plan that will include coming up with a name and logo for your business, what type of goods and services you will sell, and the pricing for these goods and services. You will need to keep track of any receipts that you have during this phase of the project.

Step 4 of this project will be to hold a grand opening for your business. On this day you will need to have all of your goods & services, logo, and pricing information set up and ready to open your business for customers. Other classes will be shopping at your business.

The final stage of our project will be to see how successful your business was by calculating your business profit.

Name: ______

Part 1: After discussing as a class the different ways that you can save money, you now need to decide where you are going to keep up with your money for your project.

I am going to deposit my project money in ______.

Write a brief description about the advantages and disadvantages of the method you chose to save.

______

Part 2: You will now have to decide if you are going to go into business independently or if you would like to have business partners. If you choose to have business partners you may work in groups of no more than 3 students.

_____ I am choosing to work independently.

_____ I am choosing to work with one business partner: ______

_____ I am choosing to work with two business partners: ______

______

Write a brief explanation of why you made this choice and the pros and cons of this business decision.

I chose to work ______because

______.

Pros Cons

______

Part 3: Develop a business plan.

Name of Business: ______Logo:

What type of goods/services will you sell?:

______

Price List for these goods and services:

______

What type of space will need to be rented? Each desk can be rented for $10 per desk.

Electricity can be purchased for $10 or highest bid. The SMARTboard can be rented for

$50 or highest bid. Check all that apply to your business.

_____ One Desk _____ Two Desks _____ Three Desks

_____ Electricity _____ I wish to rent the SMARTboard

Part 4: Keep Track of Receipts ( Glue any teacher or parent receipts to this page)

Part 5: Calculating Profit

Deposit Total
Withdrawal Total
Fixed Expenses Total
Variable Expenses Total

1. Deposits

--- Withdrawals

2. Answer from number 1

--- Fixed Expenses

3. Answer from number 2

--- Variable Expenses

Profit: ______(Answer from number 3)

Write a brief explanation as to whether or not your business was successful. Justify your reasoning.

______

Business Account Record Book

Deposits / Withdrawals / Fixed Expenses / Variable Expenses
Total / Total / Total / Total

Date

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We are very excited to be starting our Financial Literacy Unit in Math. As part of this unit, students will design, implement, and run a mock business with teacher guidance. Students may choose to work alone or in groups of no more than 3 students. Students are given a spending limit of no more than $10 (real money) per student for purchasing materials for their project. During the unit, students will make the decision to complete this project independently or in groups of no more than 3 students.

Students will complete most of the project during their math class time. The only part of the project that will be completed at home will be purchasing any necessary materials and gathering/making supplies needed to run their business. Feel free to ask your child how their project is going and what new information they found each week. This project will be a significant piece of their 2nd 9 weeks test average.

We would like to make you aware that there is a spending limit of no more than $10 per student for this project. Please adhere to these spending guidelines and discuss with your child ways to be creative that encourages them to spend less or even none of the spending limit. You will not need to turn in any actual receipts, but we ask that you do fill out the attached parent receipt that includes the amount spent (rounded to the nearest dollar), what was purchased, and your signature. Any materials that are found around the house and were not purchased for this project do not need to be included in the receipt.

Grand opening for your child’s business will be on ______at ______.

On this day your child will need to bring everything needed to open and run their business and be prepared for customers. Any parents or guardians who wish to come by and shop on this day will be given falcon bucks to spend. We look forward to seeing what great entrepreneurs we have in the fourth grade!

Sincerely,

The Fourth Grade Math Team

Parent/Teacher
Receipt / Amount: ______
Receipt of payment for: ______
______
______
Signature