
May 14, 2023 Using ESY to build a successful student business Having a business has so many benefits. Depending on what your product or service is, you have the opportunity to practice independence, money math, cooking, responsibility, and so much more. During extended school year, ESY, my classroom or self-contained middle schoolers make and sell slushies for the entire school once a week. This is a seasonally done to help raise funds for our program's needs for the following school year. We sold these slushies for $1 each. My students are primarily in the moderate to severe range and need support in fine motor and gross motor supports. Many of these students are working on daily living and functional academic skills. A slushie business was the best solution for us to reach all areas. Is it possible to run a business as a student? Here are business ideas for school projects. The slushie business originally came to me because I was looking to raise funds for our program when money was tight. I wanted something that all my students could participate in and also was low cost to us. I also wanted something of high interest and food was a great motivator. I have been running a student business in my special education life skills classroom for three years now. A business has become a great learning experience for my students. Administration. When I first approached my special education director, she had no objection to the student business. Her biggest concern was if this was going to be dairy free. I know many of our students have dairy restrictions and wanted to make sure all students were included. My original plan was to add ice cream to make it more of a smoothie like consistency, but Celestie made more sense to remove the ice cream component. The next step was to make parents and teachers aware of the student business and get any approval for this opportunity. I created a permission slip which helped give the classroom an idea of how many people would be interested. Supplies. Once I had received the parent interest forms, I was able to get supplies with my classroom. My classroom took a community trip to the local grocery store to pick up cups, straws, and frozen fruit. We had a local hospital donate a cooler full of ice to support our business. We were able to use the ice without having to create our own or buy bags of ice each week. At the end of the ESY, we sent them a thank you card signed by all of the students and a picture. All teachers in my classroom donated their blenders for the summer. We had four blenders for all of the orders each week. My speech pathologist helped set up two of those blenders to be accessible with switch activation for those students that needed support. This was all we needed. We used my classroom kitchen materials such as spoons and scoops to pour from the blender if it was too heavy. Student Tasks. Once materials were together, I considered the needs and strengths of the 11 students in my classroom. I also took into consideration their IEP goals. Each student had the opportunity to help in all areas of the business. I broke it down into three categories. Delivery, Makers, and Money Management. Delivery. The students in the delivery job would go door to door to pick up the order forms on Tuesday by the end of the day. They would also go and deliver the slushies to each classroom on Thursdays before 11am. This was the last day of the week for my district CSY. The students in the delivery role also had support of my physical therapist to use their walkers, AFOs, wheelchairs, or other equipment to support their job. This was a great way to get related service involved to address their IEP goals and minutes as well. Makers. Students in the maker job would be in charge of making the slushies. I needed to consider how much support these students needed to follow safety and sanitation guidelines. The students that needed more support would be assigned a teacher to oversee the making process. We also wore gloves donated by our school nurse. If a blender became contaminated for any reason, we would throw out that batch, fully clean the bender, and start over. This rarely happened. Students were frequently reminded to wear gloves and to use a spoon when needed. Staff of all blenders for safety with the blade, as some blenders had removable blades. The makers also had IEP goals to work on independence and completing a task, following directions, sequencing, staying on task and asking for help when needed. These goals were all focused on when they were in this role. This was a great way to assess functional goals. Money Management. The students assigned to the money management job were responsible for counting how many slushies we needed for the week and how many in each variety, strawberry, peach and pineapple. They did this after the delivery crew picked up the order forms on Tuesday. Wednesday morning we would see how many we needed to make. Since these students counted how many we had for the week, we knew how much money we should have on Thursday. This group of students counted the $1 bills up after we made deliveries on Thursday. A student also oversaw the delivery process to know if we gave out 5 slushies the class should give us $5 to help with making sure we are getting the correct amount. This was a great opportunity to assess student IEP goals. Many of these students had counting or adding as IEP goals. I was able to take data to help support their progress in a functional way. All of my students had opportunities to try out all jobs. Because we did this for 4 weeks, my students rotated through the 3 job opportunities and on the 4th week, I let them pick their role. Staff and Student Time Commitment In summary, here is the daily rundown of how much time and effort was put into start the student business to get it up, set up, and implemented. Monday, send email to staff about business for the week and pass out order forms. Tuesday, collect order forms by the end of the day. Wednesday, count order amounts and determine if more supply is needed. Thursday, make and deliver slushies. Each week, we would make about 50-100 slushies for our program. We would start around 9.15am and finish by 11am. My students then would have time after the business to enjoy their own slushies and watch a movie as a reward. Additional Advice Another word of advice I have is to ask about a budget. Ask your administrators if there is a fund you can use to purchase the business supplies for your business. If not, keep your receipts and pay yourself back afterward. This is ultimately what I did for myself. Want to read more about this process? Check out the step-by-step teacher setup.