What are the skills that the Leaders of Tomorrow need? Being problems solvers, collaborators, creative thinkers, and flexible. BizWorld provides all of this through cooperative learning, simulations of running a business, and "selling" a product. Students work in teams to start and run their own small business in a simulated friendship bracelet company.
I love BizWorld, and you might love using it in your classroom too! The Caring Classrooms Giving Community is offering a BizWorld kit valued at up to $300 in our big celebration contest this weekend! Click over to the Caring Classrooms Contest page to learn how to enter.
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| This is what the BizWorld kit looks like |
The BizWorld bracelet program can take several months to do if you follow the script in the Teacher Manual. I select my favorite parts so my program lasts around one month. Perfect to relieve the testing at the end of the year stress!
The students learn how to be entrepreneurs as they create companies in the friendship bracelet industry. The kit includes a Teacher Manual, stock cards, BizBucks, 80 bundles of bracelet string, 30 students packets for students to write in, and 5 company packets for each company to complete.
Here are some of the activities I love for my students to do: Apply for a job after reading a classified ad, raise money from a venture capitalist (the teacher and/or a parent), design the product (friendship bracelet), build prototypes of the bracelet and then begin manufacturing, calculate the finances of running a business with salaries, rent, a loan from the bank, advertise the business by creating signs, slogans, and making a commercial, and finally - selling at the BizWorld Bazaar!
The Teachers Manual provides everything you need, plus there are also PDF files to print whatever you need. Even if you know nothing about financial literacy, the Teacher Manual has an easy to use script that makes you sound like an expert!
The Art Component is amazing: designing a logo, slogan, prototype, ad campaign, posters, and a commercial.
The Math Component is great: Students work in their Profit and Loss statements to see how their business is doing, and they happily count up their BizBucks at the end of the Bazaar to see what their profit is. They also learn that they have to "pay back" the entrepreneur who invested 20% in their company, and they have to pay for Billy's salary even if he didn't work very hard.
You need to replace the string each year, and BizWorld will provide it to you for free if you have your students complete an online Pre and Post Assessment test.
Visit the BizWorld website to learn more!
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