Elementary Resources

  • Jay Starts a Business: Jay Eagle takes students on an entrepreneurial adventure to start his own bird business. With lesson plans and supporting materials for educators, students utilize a student journal to make choices about a business while assessing their own entrepreneurial interests.
  • PDFIsabel's Car Wash: This lesson introduces the roles of entrepreneur and investor in the context of starting a business through the book, Isabel's Car Wash. After discussing the story, students are divided into entrepreneur and investor groups for a business start-up simulation.
  • PDFSweet Potato Pie: This lesson highlights the resources needed for a business and what entrepreneurs should consider before starting a business. Students learn about division of labor and identify risks and rewards entrepreneurs may face when starting a business.
  • PDFTime for Cranberries: In this lesson, students will craft and perfect a definition of “entrepreneur” and make a list of key entrepreneurial characteristics. Students will then read Time for Cranberries, which tells a story of a modern entrepreneurial family who grows cranberries.
  • Entrepreneurs and Inventions: Students learn about child inventors and then create their own invention to improve their everyday lives. They are introduced to entrepreneurship and decide on the target audience and price for their invention. Each student illustrates an invention page for a classroom book.
  • PDFCommon Cents: Beyond the Lemonade Stand: This article discusses kids as entrepreneurs and gives steps to develop a business plan for a successful kid venture. Suggestions for marketing the business and providing good customer service are shared.
  • PDFMind Your Own Business:
    In this lesson and role play, students are introduced to entrepreneurship and the importance of a business plan before starting a new business.
  • External LinkUncle Jed’s Barbershop (Grades 3-5): Students listen to the book about an African-American barber who, despite significant setbacks, saves enough money to buy his own barbershop.

Middle School Resources

High School Resources

  • PDFEntrepreneurial Self-Assessment Survey: What are the characteristics of an entrepreneur, and do I have any of them? Take the Entrepreneurial Self-Assessment Survey to discover more about your own entrepreneurial potential.
  • PDFEntrepreneurship in your Community - Creating your own Career: Help students use an economic way of thinking to consider entrepreneurship as a career option with this Silver NAEE Curriculum Award-winning guide, which includes 11 lessons. PowerPoint SlideshowAccess an associated presentation here.
  • PDFCommon Cents: Beyond the Lemonade Stand: This article discusses kids as entrepreneurs and gives steps to develop a business plan for a successful kid venture. Suggestions for marketing the business and providing good customer service are shared.
  • PDFAre You Ready to Take the Risk? Students discover their entrepreneurial potential through a self-assessment survey. They learn about Gallup’s 10 talents of successful entrepreneurs and apply this knowledge to solve a business problem.
  • External LinkEntrepreneurship Speaker Series: Louisville entrepreneurs shared their success stories, expertise and real-world lessons learned with students in three short videos.
  • PDFTwenty-Two Cents: In this lesson students will explore a wide array of economic concepts related to entrepreneurship, banking, poverty, and economic decision making through the story of Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank.
  • PDFLocation, Location, Location: Let's Start a Business: In this lesson students will take on the role of an entrepreneur and describe traits their ideal consumer would possess. Then students will compare economic data from three different states to determine the ideal location for their business.
  • External LinkEveryday Economics: Everyday Economics - Entrepreneurs introduces the critical role entrepreneurs play in the economy when they bring together resources to produce goods and services and then assume the risk to take products to the marketplace. Associated lesson plans and resources are available.