Project: Run a Real Market Stall

The driving question

Can we sell something we made for more than it cost us to make.

Why this one works

Nothing focuses a child like real money and real strangers. It also fails honestly. A stall that loses money has taught more than a simulation that cannot.

How it runs

Weeks one and two: decide what to sell and, more importantly, who would buy it and why. The customer question is the one that kills most ideas, cheaply and early.

Weeks three and four: cost per unit. Materials, time, wastage. Set a price with a stated margin.

Weeks five to seven: produce, with a quality standard agreed in advance.

Week eight: sell. Handle money, give change, respond to what actually happens.

Week nine: accounts, and an honest profit and loss.

What gets produced

A stall, a set of accounts, and a written answer to what we would do differently.

Where it goes wrong

Adults quietly subsidising it so the children succeed. Do not. A loss, properly accounted for, is the more valuable outcome and children can handle it.

Related

Project Tracker is the one page planning sheet for any of these.