The last event of the academic year at Walnut School, the Fun Fair left everyone on a high, that will surely last till the first event of the next academic year!
Why have a Fun Fair at all? Well, obviously, the overall idea is for the children to have fun. Knowing the team at Walnut School, that surely wouldn’t be the *only* thought behind the event, now would it? ?
At Walnut School, every event has solid takeaways set for our students. The main thought behind organizing the Fun Fair for the Std. 3, 4, 5 students was to promote entrepreneurship. How so? Well, before we tell you how, let’s list a few traits or habits of successful entrepreneurs:
Team player: A successful entrepreneur is a good leader and team player and knows the value of a great team.
Finances: Successful entrepreneurs are financial wizards. They manage money with great attention.
Service / Product: Entrepreneurs are great at making a product or delivering a service, and are firm about what they deliver.
Planners: Entrepreneurs are master planners. They plan everything, down to the minutest detail.
Marketing: Entrepreneurs are awesome at marketing their wares.
Fun!: Last, but not the least, all successful entrepreneurs love their job and have fun all along the way.
With these in mind, let’s start with organization of the Fun Fair. For starters, we had the students organize the Fun Fair all on their own. We just gave them guidelines on what to do, and they took it from there. Firstly, we let the students choose their team members (working alone was not a choice). This is one of the most important traits of entrepreneurs – choosing a team, and not working alone. The students had to work as a team, distributing responsibilities, completing their assigned tasks. Next, we let them choose their product and/or service. They were given restrictions of one table, to be covered with a table cloth, and a place on the wall to showcase their wares. They had to choose between setting up food stalls or games. Since our students were doing this for the first time, they could have two “mentors” in the form of parents, to help them with planning and organizing. The mentors of course, couldn’t be active on the actual day. We also explained to the students the importance of advertisements, and asked them to devise their ads and offers. The children didn’t understand the importance of it all… till the day of the Fun Fair!
Enter 28th February. When guests started coming in for the Fun Fair in the morning, the students realized that selling was much harder than what they had imagined it to be! The first few stalls were getting the most attention. That is when the importance of offers and advertising struck them. Soon, all students were seen running around with samples of the food which they had prepared, or inviting guests over to their game stalls with offers which guests couldn’t refuse!
Of course, when the guests did come to their stall, they were given the best of the treatment with unparalleled service. And then they got paid! The look on the faces of the students was worth seeing – earning real money for selling real stuff – it was just out of this world. The students handled the money really well – they were noting down every rupee that they earned, and were maintaining a record of the gifts that they were giving away.
Towards the end, we saw some students disposing of their extra inventory at very nominal rates – which was awesome – as they realized that taking their wares home, would just lead to wastage. Everyone did sell their wares to their hearts content, and went home, as usual, on a high note.
What more could we ask for? In one event, these young entrepreneurs learnt how gather a team, decide on the offering they would be giving at the fair, decide the quantity of their offering(s), attract customers for consuming their goods, and deal with real money!
This is the advantage that Walnut students get over others – our students get a headstart and enough time to polish their life skills.
Now, it remains to be seen what improvisations the students will make for next year’s Fun Fair! But, we are certain they will show more entrepreneurial spirit and take it a notch higher.
