Coming up next month, fourth grade students at St. Joseph’s Brown Elementary School will get their first taste of entrepreneurship when they run simulated businesses out of their classrooms.

Brown fourth grade teacher Kim Mishler tells us she’s been doing these “Community Days” with students for about 15 years now — only about three at Brown — as she teaches the kids all about the economy, the free market, and business management. They’re talking about things like profits, inflation, supply and demand, and more as they prepare for the big day.

Mishler says on May 16, the classroom will be turned into a shopping mall with each student’s desk serving as a storefront.

“They come up with their own product or good and then they price it,” Mishler said. “We give them a little bit of startup money to get started, and then they run their business for a day, go an afternoon, and they sell to each other.”

Each student will be given $14 in “classroom money” to start out, and as the day goes on, they and the teacher will take a look at how each business is faring.

“About halfway through, we all stop and we look at each other’s business and find out who’s making a profit and who’s not. We decide if demand and supply are off, we need to make adjustments and adjust the pricing, put a sale or drive a price up or something like that. So they get some really great experience through this.”

Mishler says to prepare, a volunteer from the community comes in and teaches the students how to be good sales people, talking about professionalism, eye contact, aesthetics in their product, and more.

Some kids might sell cookies, some might sell toys, and by the end of the day they’ll have gained experience that Mishler says they won’t forget. She tells us it’s a fun way for the students to prepare to be the next generation of entrepreneurs.