The Lemonade War

Use activities to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity. 

ACTIVITY: “Create a Business Plan”

Evan and Jessie try some similar things and some different things as they compete to sell the most lemonade. They need to adapt and learn as they go, because neither one starts with a clear business plan. In this activity, you will choose one of the siblings’ lemonade businesses and, from that character’s point of view, create a business plan for their lemonade stand.

Watch this 4-minute animation by Red Canoe Credit Union to learn the parts of a business plan.

Then choose whether you want to write a plan for Evan’s or Jessie’s stand.

As you work on your plan, remember:

• Keep looking back at the book so that you use correct details from the story in your business plan.
• Explain each part of the plan in at least two complete sentences. (For some sections, you might need to write a little more than this.)
• Write in the first person, as if you are Evan or Jessie.
• Include all of the sections from the video:
• What is the business?
• How does it work?
• Who is the team?
• What is the market?
• Who are your competitors?
• What is your market strategy?
• What are the numbers?
• What do you need?

Teaching Suggestion: Writing a business plan will help students understand how the details of Evan’s or Jessie’s experiences relate to the book’s thematic motif of best business practices. You might choose to have students do this project in small groups, as partners, or individually. Although each part of this activity requires just a couple of sentences as a response, the business plan does have many parts and may be daunting to students with learning differences that affect executive function. For these students, it might be helpful to present one section of the video at a time, give the class time to write, and then move on to the next section. If time permits, you can discuss afterward or even ask students to debate which character has the stronger business plan.