Run a Stand
Make something, sell it, and find out whether you actually made money.
2 weeks🔢 Math🧭 Life Skills✏️ Writing
What you need
- whatever you will sell
- paper for a sign
- a float of coins
- a notebook
Nothing to buy and nothing to print — if you do not have one of these, swap it for whatever you do have.
The steps
Day 1
What will you sell
Pick one thing. Work out everything you need to make ten of them.
📋 Make a list
Day 2
What does it cost
Price every ingredient. Divide by ten. That is your cost per item.
🔢 Write the number down
Say this: “If you do not know your cost, you cannot know your profit.”
Day 3
Set your price
Decide what to charge, and be able to say why that number.
🔢 Write the number down
Day 4
Make the sign
One sign. It has to say what it is and what it costs, from across a garden.
📷 Take a photo
Day 7
Sell
Run the stand. Write down every sale as it happens.
📊 Make a chart or table
Day 8
Count up
Total takings, minus total costs. What is left?
🔢 Write the number down
Day 9
The honest answer
Write whether you made a profit, and what you would change.
✍️ Write a few sentences
How to score it
You score this, not us. Pick the description that actually matches what they did.
Costing
- 1. Guessed the cost
- 2. Priced some inputs
- 3. Priced all inputs
- 4. Priced all inputs and worked out cost per item
Recording sales
- 1. Did not record
- 2. Remembered roughly
- 3. Recorded each sale
- 4. Recorded each sale and totalled it correctly
Conclusion
- 1. Said it went well
- 2. Said profit or loss
- 3. Showed the arithmetic
- 4. Showed the arithmetic and named one change with a reason
With more than one child
One child owns costs, one owns sales, one owns the sign. They present the result together.
What goes in the portfolio
A costs-and-takings sheet, the sign, and a written answer to 'did we make a profit?'