Do you want to run your own school bake sale? A bake sale is a profitable fundraising activity. It can be use to raise money for school trips, events, equipment, or books.
Often a school bake sale is led by a teacher. However, that is a missed learning opportunity. This is because a school bake sale is a great way to connect math to the real world.
Why not put your students in charge instead? TechnoSales has spreadsheets lessons ideal for children in Grades 4-8. In this technology project, students investigate dessert preferences. They use the problem-solving activities to decide upon desserts sold, price, and number of items each student needs to bring or bake.
Below are some questions you need to answer before operating the fundraiser. Use them as a guide to decide upon location, advertisement, materials, and student roles.
Location
Where do you want to have the sale? Pick a spot…
- that is large enough to fit a long table
- that will allow traffic to flow easily to and from the table
- that is easy for people to reach from their classroom
- that is visible and will get people’s attention
Advertise the School Bake Sale
How do you want to let people know about the bake sale? You need to let people know about your sale. You can advertise by making posters, sending a notice home in the school newsletter, saying a speech on the announcements, or posting details to the school website.
Information you will want to include are:
- Date and Time
- Location
- Dessert Item
- Cost for each Item
- Reason for Raising Money
Materials
What materials do you need for the sale? There are many things you will need on hand for the sale. For example:
- Table and tablecloth
- Plates to display and serve baked items
- Labels that describe each item
- Utensils to cut, serve, or eat the baked items
- Cash box with money to make change
- Sign on the table listing the price of each item
- Calculator
- Napkins
- Gloves to handle food
Assign Roles
What should each person do for the bake sale? Many important jobs must be done to make sure the sale is a success. Divide the jobs:
- Scouts: Find a suitable location in the school for the bake sale. Locate tables that can be used to display baked goods.
- Advertising Committee: Create advertising material for the bake sale. Distribute the advertisements.
- Set-up Crew: Assemble the tables at the bake sale location.
- Bakers: Divide the baked goods onto plates.
- Labelers: Label each baked good. Highlight items that have ingredients such as nuts.
- Traffic Cops: Manage the traffic flow to and from the bake sale by staggering the classes that come to the bake sale.
- Servers: Serve the food to customers. The servers should wear protective gloves when handling food.
- Cashiers: Calculate the total amount of the purchase, take the customer’s money, and give back correct change.
- Clean-up Crew: Disassemble the tables at the end of the bake sale.
- Personal Relations Officers: After the fundraiser, report to the student body and parents about the success of the sale, thank them for their support, and tell how their purchases have helped.
- Manager: Oversee the details of the sale. Solve problems as they arise. Make certain each person is fulfilling his or her job duties.