Five pages that follow Bead Buddies, a friendship bracelet business, with a bake sale table called the Cookie Corner alongside. Page 1 explains the two kinds of costs: start-up costs are paid once (a table, a sign, a cash box), and supply costs are paid again for every batch (beads, string). Students circle start-up or supply for eight things on a shopping list, total each kind, then fill in the Cookie Corner's first three batches, where only batch 1 pays the start-up costs. Page 2 finds the cost of one item from a batch (or the batch cost, or how many a batch makes), then the profit at four prices from a class survey, the price that makes the most profit, and whether a price is too high or too low. Page 3 is a week's sales record at a fair: count the tally marks, find the money taken in each day and the totals, draw a bar graph and read it. Page 4 is a four-week income statement: circle profit or loss for each week and the total, explain the week that lost money, and solve two story problems. Page 5 builds a running table of profit until the start-up costs are paid back, finds the exact break-even number, sees what changes when the price or a cost changes, and solves two break-even stories. The first problem of each kind is worked as an example.
Before page 1, plan a pretend class bake sale on the board: list what you would buy and ask which things you keep and which get used up. For page 2, run a real price survey: ask the class how many would buy a cookie at 25¢, 50¢ and $1, then work out which price earns the most. Page 3 pairs well with a real sales tally from a school fundraiser. Before page 5, ask how many sales it takes before a lemonade stand has paid for its pitcher.
If your child has sold something (lemonade, crafts, a car wash), sit down together and list the start-up costs and the supplies. Work out what one item cost to make and what the profit was on each. Talk about the price: what happens if it is higher, and what happens if it is lower. Keep a simple sales record for a garage sale or bake sale and see whether it made a profit.
This pack supports the following Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:
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A 5-page financial literacy pack for 4th and 5th grade that follows a kid's bracelet business from start to finish. Sort a shopping list into start-up costs (paid once) and supply costs (paid for every batch), and total each. Find the cost of one item from a batch, the profit on one bracelet at four prices, and the price that makes the most profit. Keep a week's sales record from tally marks and draw a bar graph, fill in a four-week income statement with a profit or loss each week, and find how many bracelets pay back the start-up costs. Every page comes in color and in black and white. Answer keys included.
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