4High School News

Ventures in Enterprise "sweetens" learning for fourth graders

Can you really teach worthwhile lessons by baking cookies? You certainly can if you pair high school business students with eager fourth graders!

Fourth grade teachers Lori Dietrick and Ann Mahon were looking for a different way to reinforce their lessons on measurement. What better way than to step into the kitchen! The elementary teachers teamed up with high school business teacher Laura Bellinger to create a two-day lesson that included basic math, reading, and practical business and life skills.

Mrs. Bellinger's Ventures in Enterprise 2 (ViE2) class became the teachers and mentors as they shared their experience running their Otis Spunkmeyer cookie business. As a part of the ViE2 curriculum, the high school students order ready-to-bake cookies, bake them, sell them once each week in school, maintain records, handle finances, and generate accounting reports—everything you would do when operating a business. Working alongside the older students in production and sales, Mrs. Dietrick's and Mrs. Mahon's classes got a "taste" of the business world.

In addition, the fourth graders had a chance to practice their consumer skills. Each student completed a retail order form that included contact information, the number of cookies ordered, and the total cost of the order.

"We made certain that every student would have at least one cookie," said Mrs. Dietrick. "Some students even took orders from home and purchased dozens of cookies."

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