Gatehouse Birdhouse Company — A Great Success!
Every winter, Carroll’s 5th grade students launch an ambitious entrepreneurial project with the guidance of their teachers and Mr. Burk, the woodshop teacher. Their goal is to manufacture and sell enough birdhouses to finance all of the expenses for their four-day trip to Cape Cod Sea Camps at the end of May. In the process, they learn the skills needed for marketing, production, and sales.
The first undertaking is for the students to create an “infomercial” – an informational commercial presented as a video. This video informs their audience about the operations of the Gatehouse Birdhouse Company. The next step is to manufacture the birdhouses where the students learn the necessary woodshop skills and follow the model of assembly line production. Then, using sales packets they have compiled and showing a model house, students market the birdhouses to people on and off the Carroll campus. This year’s class sold a record 627 birdhouses!
Each student also drew a picture of a bluebird that was put on a poster. The bluebird poster was so festive and attractive that it was sold as a featured item in Carroll’s online auction. And, for a fun finale, the 5th grade students made silkscreen T-shirts with Ms. Francis, their art teacher.
Congratulations to the 5th grade!
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