There’s a few important things to know about designing and selling a product, Gardner School first-grader Aubrey Silbernagel said.
One: Whatever you’re making can’t be too big, so people can carry them home. Two: Everyone has to like it, “not just your gender.”
And three: “In my case, make everything cute,” Aubrey said.
Aubrey shared that bit of wisdom sitting behind a table covered in popsicle-stick frames and “puff ball guys” — fluffy balls covered in googly eyes and felt features. She and her classmates at the Gardner School were in the thick of the Gardner Market on Friday, an annual staple at the Mt. Vista-area private school for 16 years.
Students spend several weeks developing a business plan, making a product and, eventually, selling it to their friends and visitors to campus. Part of the proceeds go to a local and national charity selected by students. This year, students elected to raise money for the Eagle Creek Fire Restoration Fund, which will support cleanup in the Columbia River Gorge following last summer’s wildfire, and The Ocean Cleanup, which is working to remove plastic from the ocean.
Homemade bath bombs, student-grown succulents, fresh made smoothies and glittering slime were on display in the school’s front yard, as parents and students crowded booths and made their purchases.
Jackie Taylor, director of elementary programs for the school, said the program gives students a chance to become familiar with money, work on their time-management skills and collaborate with their peers to support a good cause.
“There’s a lot of thinking that goes into it,” she said.
While most students work in small groups or on their own to make and sell their products — parents help a lot, too — the whole thing is a little beyond the school’s kindergartners’ abilities. Instead, those students work together as a class, this year growing vegetable starts and making agua fresca to sell.
Amelia Benson, 6, enjoyed watching her class’s plants growing “from seed to flower.”
“Well,” she clarified. “They’re not seed to flower, because not all of them are flowers, some of them are vegetables. Seed to sprout.”
There were other lessons to be learned too, such as the value of teamwork.
“I’m learning you have to work with a team to do it faster,” Amelia aid.
Neil Potnis and Carver Taylor, both 12-year-old sixth-graders, were selling popcorn, homemade marshmallows and a book Neil wrote about a man who goes to Mars.
Carver explained that it’s important to remember the rules of supply and demand when you’re selling a product. Last year, Carver made stress balls, but he made too few and sold them for too little.
“I sold out right away,” he said.
Apparently it’s hard to be a kid these days.
