Skills Covered

How to Use This Pack

Five pages that follow Bead Buddies, a friendship bracelet business, with a bake sale table called the Cookie Corner alongside. Page 1 explains the two kinds of costs: start-up costs are paid once (a table, a sign, a cash box), and supply costs are paid again for every batch (beads, string). Students circle start-up or supply for eight things on a shopping list, total each kind, then fill in the Cookie Corner's first three batches, where only batch 1 pays the start-up costs. Page 2 finds the cost of one item from a batch (or the batch cost, or how many a batch makes), then the profit at four prices from a class survey, the price that makes the most profit, and whether a price is too high or too low. Page 3 is a week's sales record at a fair: count the tally marks, find the money taken in each day and the totals, draw a bar graph and read it. Page 4 is a four-week income statement: circle profit or loss for each week and the total, explain the week that lost money, and solve two story problems. Page 5 builds a running table of profit until the start-up costs are paid back, finds the exact break-even number, sees what changes when the price or a cost changes, and solves two break-even stories. The first problem of each kind is worked as an example.

In the Classroom

Before page 1, plan a pretend class bake sale on the board: list what you would buy and ask which things you keep and which get used up. For page 2, run a real price survey: ask the class how many would buy a cookie at 25¢, 50¢ and $1, then work out which price earns the most. Page 3 pairs well with a real sales tally from a school fundraiser. Before page 5, ask how many sales it takes before a lemonade stand has paid for its pitcher.

At Home

If your child has sold something (lemonade, crafts, a car wash), sit down together and list the start-up costs and the supplies. Work out what one item cost to make and what the profit was on each. Talk about the price: what happens if it is higher, and what happens if it is lower. Keep a simple sales record for a garage sale or bake sale and see whether it made a profit.

Tips for Success

• Start-up costs are paid once; supply costs are paid again for every batch
• Cost of one item = cost of one batch ÷ items in the batch
• Profit on one item = price − cost of one item
• A price that is too high loses buyers; a price that is too low earns little on each
• To break even, divide the start-up costs by the profit on one item and round up