The Learning Commons and library area in the centre of Pleasant Corners Public School looked more like a busy mall and food court during the evening of Thursday, June 19. Grades five, six, and seven presented the school’s third annual Small Business Fair.

Under the leadership of their teacher Jennifer Anderson, the students had spent three months working in small groups, preparing 15 different small businesses which they would operate at the fair. This year, the businesses raised $5,000 for the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) Champions for Kids Foundation. The organization provides additional financial assistance to families in UCDSB schools with the costs associated with music and sports programming.

The concept of teaching about small businesses and social enterprises is called Kidpreneurship, which operates with the slogan “Dream like a Kid.” Anderson said the open-mindedness and creativity of the students tends to lend itself to innovative ideas. The businesses featured at this year’s PCPS event ranged from tacos to lemonade and cotton candy to ice cream sundaes.

The basics of business, including inventory and finance, are taught in every subject while the students are preparing. Anderson said this includes aspects of financial literacy that are now part of the school curriculum. Each business was given a $200 cash flow. The students certainly learned about supply and demand during the business fair. Occasional calls for a teacher or parent to go to the store for more ingredients were heard, and the cupcake stand sold out of its inventory of 240 before the evening ended. All of the logos were created by the students, along with creative marketing such as someone dressed as a ball of cotton candy.

Anderson said the popularity of the business fair has reached further into the community. A website with a QR code this year helped achieve that objective. Many former PCPS students and staff attended this year’s fair.

“What started as a school event has become a community event,” Anderson said.

PCPS is unique among elementary schools in the huge territory of the UCDSB, which includes Prescott and Russell, Stormont-Dundas and Glengarry, Leeds and Grenville, and Lanark counties. No other school has a business fair as a way of demonstrating what students have learned about entrepreneurship.

“We have projects that are entrepreneurial, but nothing quite like this one,” said Cam Jones, the Principal of Real-World Learning for the UCDSB.

Photos: James Morgan

Submitted photos