Starting a Class Business has been an awesome experience for my students. We go around every Friday and sell coffee, tea, cold drinks and snacks to the teachers in our school. It has been a great way for my students to get out of the classroom and visit the rest of the school and work on their communication skills.

Starting Out:

We started by doing a very simple survey with the staff that included questions like:

  1. How often would you buy something?
  2. What kind of drink would you buy?
  3. What kind of snack would you buy?
  4. How much would you be willing to pay?

Our Cart:

Once we had decided how often to go, we gathered all the necessary items to run our business. We gathered coffee makers, kettles, a cart and a few bins we had lying around. Our cart looks like this…

 

 

What to charge:

After explaining the purpose of the coffee cart to the staff, we encourage staff to contribute any amount. I have taught my students the phrase “We takes ones or twos but no I owe yous” which we proudly display on the front of our cart.

Roles:

My students are assigned roles according to the goals that they are working on. The roles include cart pusher, greeter, money collector, cream and milk leader, sugar and sweetener leader and salesperson. The goal is to work the students towards independence in interacting and completing their assigned roles.

Assessment:

I have made a simple checklist for things to look for when my students are selling coffee to the teachers on Friday. Many of the goals on the checklist are embedded into their IEP goals.

 

Greets teacher (eg.hello)
Explains choices available
Explains cost

 

Listens to order and gets cream or milk correctly
Listens to order and gets sugar or sweetener correctly
Identifies coins correctly (loonie/toonie)
Verbally Says goodbye to teacher

 

Adding Funds To Your Program:

Money is important to our program.  We take many trips and do many activities that require additional funds. This business allows us to increase our allocated school budget to make our program super fun and exciting.

If you are thinking about starting a class business or a social enterprise please feel free to reach out, I would be happy to help!

 

Facebooktwitterredditpinteresttumblrmail

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.