Market Day teaches Houston County students financial literacy, entrepreneurship skills

The market day is where students act as entrepreneurs, creating, pricing, and selling homemade goods and services to their peers and teachers. 

WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Houston County third graders turned classroom lessons into real-life business Wednesday during the district’s annual market day.

Students act as entrepreneurs, creating, pricing, and selling homemade goods and services to their peers and teachers. The event teaches teaches financial literacy concepts like supply & demand, profit and maintaining a checking account. 

“They learn about resources, and how they use resources to build goods and services,” K-5 social studies coordinator Christie Lehman said. “And we thought what other way for them to understand than hands-on experience?'”

Jakisha Jackson, a third grade teacher at Westside Elementary School, says teaching this unit to her students prepares them for future entrepreneurship. 

“In the world that we live in, entrepreneurship is so important, and it’s just teaching them how business works, teaching them about the value of money, how to send it and goods and services,” she said. 

Jackson says she hopes her students are inspired to be entrepreneurs one day.

“And know that through creativity they can come up with their own products and hopefully build their own businesses and be successful,” Jackson said.

“One thing that we really have to understand is the value of an item, whether it’s money or my service,” Lehman said. “And I feel like if they can understand that now when they are younger, that it will only increase as they get older.”

The students will have one last market on Friday at 9:30 a.m.