Student business fair raises money for Aurora school, teaches kids about helping community

AURORA, Colo. — At Iowa Elementary School in Aurora, a recent lesson for the fourth graders is paying off for the whole school.

Fourth grade teacher Cara Schlichting wanted to find a way to connect the kids with their community, so last year she helped them create a business fair to sell homemade products.

“My students have the capabilities to do these sorts of things that they’re talking about in the text they’re reading, and it’s one thing to read about them, but to actually bring it to life and have hands on integration of what they’re learning was really the whole point,” Schlicting said.

Last year, the kids sold their items for “bear bucks,” the school’s fake currency. But this year, Schlichting felt they were ready to ask the community to bring real money to shop, with all of the profits going back to their school.

Diamanta Destin’s group made slime with charms in it, and sold it for two dollars, raking in over $100 on the day of the fair.

“They were just coming like wildfire, and almost all of our slime was gone,” Destin said.

Natan Hailu made origami and used sales tactics they learned from a professional salesperson who came in to help.

“The main thing that I learned was first, be kind to the customer,” Hailu said.

At the end of the day, the kids raised $1,148 for their school. But it wasn’t profits for their own banks at home. Schlichting said the point was to teach them to be good community members.

“This is money for the students in your school that came and shopped at your business fair, this is for us, Iowa Elementary,” Schlichting said.

The fourth graders are excited to share the money on new school supplies and equipment for the school. There’s also talk of a possible field trip as a reward. Schlichting said the biggest reward is the pride the success instilled in her students.

“They’re what make this school run,” she said.