Business Time - Our Market Place

 We had our Market Place on Friday afternoon and it was wonderful to see everyone selling their products with pride. There has been lots of learning along the way and we've been really impressed with the collaboration, creativity and financial understanding that the children have demonstrated. The whole school community supported the event and the junior school learned about choices involved in spending money. There was plenty of powerful learning - resilience and perseverance, as well as celebration.

Alexs' cookies - "Business day was really fun; we learned how to make a profit and how we can see our products. We felt really good that we sold all our cookies. We were very surprised at how much profit we made." - Alex G, Alex B and Alex P

Fizz Wizards - "We enjoyed the opportunity to experience what it's like to run our own business. I thought that it went really well and I enjoyed it.  We learned that it's better to have more stock than you need because when you run out you can't make any more sales. We ran out. It was good, I liked that a lot of people were buying our lemonade. It went better than I expected because more people liked our product, it was really tasty!" - Chester, Blake, Teddy

Tea Tree - "It was a good experience to learn about profit and supply and demand. You have to think about the idea and who you're selling it to. If you make it cheaply it's better for you but the quality isn't so good, so it's best to make it good quality. I want to do this kind of thing more often. Ours was cheap because we used lots of things like mint from our garden. It was a good learning opportunity because we were taking a risk and we weren't sure if we would succeed." - Isaac and Hugo M

Pencils and Paintbrushes - "I learnt that sometimes you make a lot but then you have to make some more. Since it was art we had to make more and more so we wouldn't run out. Sometimes if you're not selling something that people want you can make it for them." Jessie, Charlotte, Bethen, Caitlyn

Marketplace: The 18th of November at Worser Bay School

The Market Place: Friday the 18th of November at Worser Bay School 1:00 pm-3:30 pm.

You are all invited to come to the Mahutonga Matariki Market Place next Friday afternoon.  The fair will be over for another year but there will be more buying and selling going on in our Courtyard.  We have been learning about how to make a successful business and are putting our ideas into practice. And, there are some fantastic ideas bubbling away in our entrepreneurial brains so come and see and be part of the fun.  Don’t forget to bring some money to spend and some friends and family to spend it with.

Profits will be tracked carefully and redirected into paying for upcoming beach week activities.

For the kids there will be:

• Food (lunch options such as burgers and hot dogs as well as lots of baking)
• Lollies and sweets
• Drinks
• Pencils
• Crafts
• And much more…

For the adults there will be

• Teas, kawakawa and other exotic blends
• Terrariums
• Plants (natives being on sold through the Motu Kairangi group)
• And much more also….

It is so exciting! See you all there!

Keep an eye out in the Newsletter and on the blog for further advertising.

Making Diagrams to Show the basic Principals of Economics.

Scarcity and Choices Flow Diagram.

We have been learning about how money works and some basic principles of economics; want and need, supply and demand, profit and loss and so on.  The ideas and concepts related to money have been processed and turned into diagrams to represent the ideas.  We have then been teaching others in the class about what we have learnt.  These are some of the diagrams we have made.

Supply and Demand: The larger dollar sign shows increasing cost as the demand increases and the supply diminishes.

Goods and Services:  Sometimes there is a product that also involves a service , like when you but a coffee at Scorchorama.

Learning about money

As part of our Business Time Inquiry, we are trialling the use of a programme called Banqer. Under this online programme all the students have an account and learn the basics of having a bank account and the idea of earning money, having costs and how interest affects them.

We had an interesting afternoon negotiating with students how much they thought they should receive as a daily amount, and what costs they should be paying for. In the end we agreed that they would each receive $200 a day and would have to pay the teachers (collectively) $70 a day, rental costs would be $70 a day and an additional daily charge of $10 for electricity and water. There were also a number of additional payments that we have discussed, which will be rewarded with Banqer payments - such as taking action for Student Council groups; volunteering for road patrol when someone is away and putting great effort into their work, etc.

We have introduced the idea of Banqer this week and are in the process of rolling it out to them. If you'd like to know more, please follow this link. Once everyone has their passwords they will be able to log on at home too.

Thinking Creatively About Business With Jason

Jason came in to talk to us about how he uses his creative ideas to develop business ideas.  

We asked Jason questions we had thought about before, about the ideas which go into making a good business. He told us that he got sick of giving his good ideas away to other people and so decided to follow through and develop some of these ideas himself.  That is how he has ended up involved in so many different things.  He said he has a short attention span so likes to be involved in lots of different things.  

“I will touch a project at the start and at the end but don’t do much of the work in the middle”

Sounds great!  Some of the other things Jason said were:

The thing I’ve learnt in business most is that timing is everything. Timing is everything! The way you know the timing is right is by listening. I’m not a great talker but I’m a good listener.  By doing that I can work out what the problems are, what the problems people are facing and if it is a lot of people then we’ll set up a business.

When asked if his new business Dot Loves Data was a ‘want or a need’ he said that it was a need.  “There’s lot’s of data out there and people need to understand it.  Everybody is talking about data, there is a huge need for it and a huge want for it. Data can help play a part in tackling issues like obesity.”

It’s amazing to think that data packages they sell can do things as diverse as predicting the amount of customers a restaurant might cater to on any given night, how many hot meals they will sell and on the other hand, how many people will turn up to Wellington Zoo.

“I think in business and anything you are doing you should always looks to make improvements.  That’s the thing that’s exciting.”

When asked what his business would be like in the future? Jason said, “Someone else will be running it.  I will be sitting back, playing golf!”

It is great to see somebody who is thinking creatively and doing so much with it!  

Thanks Jason!

Business ideas

After Jason had come in and spoken to us today about how he gets his ideas for new businesses, we thought about what ideas and skills we have that we could use to earn some money. We thought about what we could make and sell, and also what skills we had that we could use to perform a service for someone.

After a brainstorm in small groups, here are some of our ideas:
 - smoking fish
 - drawing
 - real fruit ice cream
 - art
 -  doing gardening
 - dollhouse
 - designing
 - soft drinks
 - doing cleaning
 - cupcakes
 -  pottery
 - football club
 - bath bombs
 - gmynastics lessons
 - hot chocolates
 - plants
 - football coaching
 - hairties
 - making putty/slime
 - drawing comics

What a talented bunch! Watch this space to see what we do...