Once+Upon+a+Company...+A+True+Story+Reinforcing+Activity

** Reinforcing Activity **
Description: Students will be placed in groups of three-four and they will be given an assignment. The assignment will be that they will have to work in groups to create a “business” of their choice, much like the characters in the book.

What do YOU know about running a business? Have the students think-pair-share about what they know about running a business.
 * Launch:** (optional)

First, the teacher will read //Once Upon a Company…A True Story// to the students. At this point, the students do not know of their assignment. They are to just enjoy the story. The teacher might have guided notes on this book so that the students pay attention during this time. While the teacher is reading the book he/she should point out the key ideas and vocabulary words that occur in the book. Examples include: profit, customer, merchants, salesmen, wholesalers, investors, etc. The handout below gives the key vocabulary for this book.
 * Core:**



After the book has been read and the vocabulary words have been covered, the teacher will assign students to groups of three to four people. These will be the students’ groups for this particular assignment/project. This could very well last anywhere from a day up to a week, depending on how much time you would like to spend on this benchmark.

When the students are in their groups, hand out an assignment sheet that details what they will be doing. The students will be working in these groups to create their own business. As a group, they need to come up with what their business will be about: What will they sell? How will they sell it? etc. This can be purely up to the students, but the teacher must approve each group’s concept. They will also need to decide upon the tasks/roles for each person in their group. Which person will be the bookkeeper, which person will be the salesperson, etc. The groups must record this information on a worksheet style handout and it will be turned into the teacher at the end of the first day (if this assignment will last longer than one day).

Next, the students will begin ‘branding’ their business. They will need to come up with a slogan, emblem, name, strategies to sell their item/service etc. The groups will need to record this information as well as turn it in. The students can get as creative as they can for this part of the project. They can create posters, jingles, etc. It is the teacher’s job to circulate the room for any questions and to make sure that the students are working towards their goal.

At the end of this assignment, each group will have their turn to present their business. They need to include the different roles that are assigned to each group member and WHY that job is important to the success of their business, what their product(s)/service(s) is, what their pricing is, etc.

After each group has had a chance to present, each student will get five "dollars" to invest in any of the businesses for their particular class. They can divide their "dollars" up, or they can put it all in one business. The teacher will have different jars (or other system) that represent the different businesses, and will tally up which business had the most investment/dollars.


 * Assessment is optional and can be created at the teacher's discretion.

//Optional Extension:// If teaching on a team, teachers could work together on this project and the "winning" groups from each class could create longer presentations and have a final showdown to see which company ranks supreme. Students from both classes will get to see each group's presentation and make a decision on which company seems to have the most promising future.


 * Other Ohio Academic Content Standards**: People in Societies