With entrepreneurship becoming increasingly prevalent in modern society, especially as a function of the need to make money with Covid-19 compromising so many businesses and jobs, it is likely that an increasing number of children will grow up wanting to explore such avenues for themselves.
Monkey see, monkey do… as they say.
Accordingly, as an educator, it may be not only worthwhile but also simply good for your students that you try and encourage entrepreneurship through your everyday classroom activities. Trust us, this doesn’t have to be complicated either.
Here are Explorer Hop's five classroom activities that can help you turn your students – of all ages, although some activities are more appropriate for certain groups than others – into the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
1. Brainstorming Sessions
This one’s simple. Gather your students and have them spend 10-15 minutes in a group brainstorming possible business ideas. Amazon, Google, Snapchat, Instagram and all other great businesses in between started as simple ideas, so getting your students involved in the ideation of a business concept is the first step towards turning any of them into the next successful entrepreneur.
Who knows? Maybe you’ll see them on Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank in the future and they’ll have you and an activity like this to thank for their success.
2. Progressive Goal-Setting
Entrepreneurship is a process. One that requires constant assessment and reassessment of goals and ambitions, eventually leading to a larger milestone.
Start engaging your students in this idea by simply allowing them to write down two things they want to accomplish at the beginning of a month. Then, go back halfway through the month and change them if necessary depending on the student’s progression towards said goals. Finally, look at the goals with your students when the month ends to see what was accomplished and what still requires more work.
This will build a habit for consistent checking, re-checking and assessment of identified goals that will help them understand what it takes to be an entrepreneur starting from scratch later in their lives.
3. Entrepreneurial Success Story Reading
If we know that other people were able to succeed at something, do you believe that we’re more likely to think that we can succeed too?
Exposing your students to stories of past successful entrepreneurs – especially using big numbers like net worth to make a big impression – will give them an understanding that they can be just like the person from the story.
We believe that this activity will provide your students with extra motivation, trust and belief in themselves that they can accomplish anything they set their minds to – even becoming the next great entrepreneur!
4. Business Plan Writing
Every great result starts with a great plan. If you’re looking to sculpt your students into great young entrepreneurs, start by getting them to write a business plan for an idea they come up with themselves – perhaps directly from the brainstorming sessions we mentioned earlier.
Having students write their own business plans will give them a much clearer picture of what it really takes to start a business than simply explaining it to them. Go beyond words out of your mouth and let your group of young entrepreneurs get hands-on experience with the process of entrepreneurial ideation by sitting them down and having them get the ball rolling with their own business plans.
5. Online Store Set Up
This is a more advanced activity than the ones we have already talked about and that’s why we left it to the end. After getting your students to write a business plan, why not take it a step further and begin helping them turn what’s on the paper into reality with their own online store?
Need some help getting this off the ground?
Look no further than Explorer Hop and our entrepreneurship programs for children in grades 1 all the way through 12. In our programs, we teach children all about marketing, finance, business operations and sales – including helping them actually build an online business – as we aim to further grow the ambitious entrepreneurial passion for which you have laid the foundation!
What do you think of our five activity suggestions? Will you be implementing any of them in your classroom going forward?
At Explorer Hop, we believe that entrepreneurship has such great room to grow in our society and there is simply so much benefit in using activities like the ones we mention in this post to help your students get a head start on establishing the basic knowledge they need to understand entrepreneurship today.
Good luck helping the world craft it’s next group of young brilliant entrepreneurs!