22 Simple Things for Kids to Make and Sell at School (Market Day Ideas) (2024)

Looking for things for kids to make and sell at school (maybe for market day)? Here are 22 unique things to sell at school for kids, tweens, and teens.

I love encouraging kids of all ages to roll up their sleeves and dive head-first into entrepreneurship.

That's why I decided to tackle both brainstorming and finding some of the best things for kids to make and sell at school.

These are good for any time of the year, but specifically, they can work well for your child's market day at school.

Before we get into all the details, let's look at how to pick out the best things for your kid to make (you know, the ones that will sell the best and take the least amount of time?).

How to Pick Out the Best Things for Your Kid to Make and Sell

First of all, you want to make sure to read your middle school’s (or elementary school’s) rules for market day.

You don’t want your child to put in all that work and effort, only to not be allowed to sell anything!

Next, you want to do at least one practice run with whatever they’re making, plus how they want to display it (could use these Market Day display ideas from Dollar Tree) and distribute it.

For example, if you choose to make the Unicorn body butter recipe from below and package it in the ice-cream cone (with live-scooping for more sales), then you’ll want your child to practice:

• Creating the recipe and using it to make sure it’s good
• Packaging up an ice cream cone and leaving it for a few days to see what adjustments need to be made
• Scooping the body butter into the ice cream cone, putting on the cellophane wrap, and tying a bow, in front of other people

Let’s talk about what you should think about when helping your child, tween, and teen pick out a craft or thing to create to sell (for market day, TREPS ideas, and beyond).

Psst: does your child need help with pricing their market day product (plus you want to teach them a money/entrepreneur lesson)? Here's my market lesson plan to teach kids how to price their market day product to sell.Also, here's 3 kid business plan examples. Could make great, complementary market day projects!

I’ll help you with some bullet points to consider:

• Skillset required to make the craft or thing
• How many your child can create at once (remember, they’ll be making a lot of these!)
• Cost of materials to create the craft
• End customers, and what they would like to buy
• What other kids (aka, the competition) are going to be creating, and how your craft stacks up to that

Having said all that, the best market day ideas for your kid to make and sell would be something that…

• Kids/tweens/teens want to buy
• Costs only a few dollars or less to make
• Lends itself to scaled production (meaning, your child can make several at once)
• Is age-appropriate, or can be so with adult supervision
• Is something your child is excited to make (I've also got 17 ideas for boy crafts to sell)
• They either know how to create already or can learn pretty easily and quickly

Unique Things to Sell at School for Market Day

If you’re looking for unique things to sell at school on your next market day (and what to sell at school besides candy), then you’re in the right place.

Find brand new, creative entrepreneur fair ideas below (and some really creative ways to package your products!).

1. Figure 8 Mason Jar (or Cone)

Grab a ton of Popsicle sticks, and mason jars (don’t have a bunch of mason jars hanging around? You can also buy some cellophane cones or anything else that will hold the Popsicle sticks).

Have your child print up generic answers to yes/no questions on the computer to print out, cut up, and glue onto the Popsicle sticks.

Example answers:

• You betcha
• You can count on that
• I wouldn’t expect it
• Only if you keep trying
• Yes
• No
• Maybe
• After a year
• Sometime in the future
• etc.

Hint: you’ll want to have them fill in a few answers, print it out, and test to make sure it’ll fit onto the Popsiclesticks you have.

Fill jars or containers with the Popsicle sticks. Put a lid on, and create some labels for the top to display “Ask Your Yes/No Questions”, “Get the Answers You Seek”, “Figure 8 Jar”, or anything else you can think up.

Demonstrate these on your Market Day by asking customers walking by to ask any question they have, then pull out a random Popsicle stick and get the answer they’re looking for.

2. Ice-Cream Cone Body Butter

Kids (of all ages) love ice cream cones, right? Your child can create a body butter using one of the following recipes:

• Unicorn body butter (or Unicorn whipped body butter)
• Peppermint Patty body butter
• Vanilla-whipped body butter

Then, use an ice cream scoop (or baker’s piping bag), and fill an ice cream cone up with the body butter. Wrap it in cellophane treat bags – tie with a bow or twisty – and sell, sell, sell!

Bonus tip: if you can practice at home, go ahead and put all of your body butter into an old ice-cream plastic tub, and live-scoop it on market day at your school. You might just get a crowd😊).

Here’s an ice cream cone rack you can use to display!

3. Slime Bar with an Ice Cream Scoop

There are literally TONS of recipes out there for homemade slime. My twist on this?

Is to create your favorite slime recipes to sell, but to package them a bit differently.

You’re going to create 3-4 different varieties, and then…wait for it…sell them by the scoop.

Depending on your costs to create the product, you might charge $0.25/scoop, $0.50/scoop, or even $1.00/scoop.

Want to get extra exposure to your stand on market day? Go ahead and let the kids themselves scoop out the slime that they want.

Here are some slime recipes to get you started:

• Fluffy Unicorn Slime
• Jello Slime Recipe
• Green Slime

Package these up in cute Chinese takeout boxes. What a pleasing presentation AND a cool product to sell!

4. Hand-Dipped Chopsticks

This might be my favorite school business fair idea (could be because I used to live in Japan!).

Kids love to experiment with eating with chopsticks. And decorating the tops of chopsticks (not where they’ll eat with them, but where their hands go) is so easy to do!

Here’s a package of 10 bamboo chopsticks that are dishwasher safe, and here is dishwasher-safe paint to use to dip the non-eating ends of each pair of chopsticks in. You can dip one color layer on, let them dry (below, I have a Dollar Tree cooling rack bridging two chairs, and clothespins holding each chopstick, with paper below to catch the paint), and then create a new layer of paint line above the last color, and repeat until you’ve created a rainbow look.

Note: You’ll want to include a note that the chopsticks and paint are top-shelf, dishwasher-safe, but that handwashing would likely preserve them longer.

5. DIY Phone Pop Sockets

Do you know those little phone holders on the back of a smartphone? Your child can make some to sell.

Here's a video tutorial:

6. Shoe Charms

Help other kids decorate their shoes and express themselves by making shoe charms!

7. Donut Soaps

How darling are these DIY donut soaps? I'd definitely want to buy a few of these as gifts from a kid or teen who made them!

Psst: make sure you really label these as non-edible!

8. Homemade Sprinkles in Jars

Check out these adorable homemade sprinkles your child can sell in cute little jars!

Here are more Market Day food ideas from Dollar Tree.

9. Gourmet S'Mores Kits

People LOVE making s'mores. Why not give them the opportunity to make s'mores after your big market day event?

The selling point for these is to turn them into “Gourmet” s'mores kits.

To do that, you can include things like:

• Unicorn marshmallows (sold at Dollar Tree)
• Rolos to use in place of or along with the chocolate
• Sprinkles to roll the outside gooey, melted marshmallow into

Crafts for Kids to Make and Sell

Here are even more craft ideas for kids to make and sell.

Note that many of these will need adult supervision, so please plan ahead accordingly. Also, if you're looking for your child to create an actual business from their market day product? Perhaps check out the Teen Entrepreneur Toolbox.

1. Tie-Dye Wax Bookmarks

Why don’t you be the first person ever to create wax bookmarks?

Here’s a tutorial for how to make wax paper from old candles. You can also use paraffin (and dye it various colors, then create a marbling effect). Cut out the bookmark from your wax paper, punch a hole in the top, and add a cool tassel

The texture will be fun!

2. Door Hangers

What kid, tween, or teen doesn’t want a cool door hanger to proudly display outside of their room?

Decorate these wooden door hangers anyway you’d like.

One idea to get you started? Paint with chalk paint, and include a piece of chalk as part of your product.

3. Gemstone Soaps

These soaps are brilliant! Bright, in the shape of gems…what’s not to love?

They’re also ridiculously easy to make. Here’s a tutorial for how to make them, plus everything you’ll need.

Box these up in adorable party treat favor boxes (which also happen to be cheap!).

4. Popsicle Stick Soap

These soaps on Popsicle sticks are not only easy to make, but are super cute!

You can purchase some cellophane to wrap around the soap part, then tie off with a twisty.

5. Jell-O Lip Gloss

Buy yourself a set of lip gloss containers, then head over to this post for the details on how to create a big batch of lip gloss.

Hint: Be sure to read the comments section – there are several helpful tips, such as using hot water to stop any graininess after it sets – from people who used this recipe.

Cheap Things for Kids to Make and Sell

I’ve heard from lots of teachers that they need cheap ideas of things kids can make and sell for market day – not everyone can afford lots of supplies some of the crafts take.

No worries at all! I’ve dedicated this section to the cheapest market day ideas out there.

1. Decorated Marshmallows

What I love about this idea is not only can you get all of the ingredients at the grocery store, but it’s pretty cheap without looking cheap. In fact, you can make some gorgeous-looking marshmallows out of this!

Grab a bag of marshmallows, Popsicle sticks (in a pinch? You can use toothpicks), a bag of candy melts, and sprinkles.

Melt the candy melts in a bowl, and stick the marshmallow with the toothpick/Popsicle stick. Dip the marshmallow in the candy melt (doesn’t have to be the whole marshmallow – could be just the bottom portion), and then dip it in the sprinkles. Sit it on a cooling rack or plate to dry.

Create a display case by overturning a bowl, and placing a plate on top of it. Voila!

2. Origami Animals

While this one might be a bit more tedious, it’s definitely cost-effective. You’ll need to check out an origami book at the library and grab some origami paper.

Here are a few online tutorials that are pretty easy to follow:

• Jumping Frog
• Shark Cootie Catcher
• Monster Bookmarks

3. Soap Jellies

These are super simple, and very cheap to mass produce. You’ll need things like packages of gelatin, liquid soap, and ice cube trays!

I think kids will like how squishy they feel.

4. Design a Binder Printable

In this digital products age we live in, why not get your kiddo started early creating printable products?

Help them use a free PDF-creating software like Canva.

They can choose the PDF option, and then create a binder printable that kids would love to add to the front cover of their binder, or punch holes in and put inside of their binder to name it.

Here are some video tutorials about how to use Canva.

Then, help them print out a bunch of them at the office store (I would do color, and you can usually find a coupon for 15% off printing at places like Office Depot).

5. Super Soaker Sponge Balls

Head to the dollar store and grab a bunch of kitchen sponges and twine, then check out this tutorial on how to create super soaker sponge balls. Here’s a bulk bunch of them.

6. Create Marbled Shaving Cream Paper

This one makes my cheap list IF you have several of the ingredients at home (which I think you might). Pick up some shaving cream and white paper from the dollar store. You might already have food coloring and other materials.

7. Cupcake Liner Umbrellas

Grab some toothpicks, and cupcake liners, and you’ll have just about everything you need for this craft.

8. Stress Ball

You’ll need balloons and some flour for this stress ball craft – that’s about it!

9. Marshmallow Shooters

You’ll need a bag of mini marshmallows, some of those cheap plastic cups, and a bag of balloons. Here’s the tutorial. Simple…and these could be the hit of Market Day!

10. Bags of Confetti

You could buy really small baggies, and have your child cut up all the paper in your recycling bin to create confetti. Kids can buy one pack at a time.

Because…what kid doesn’t want to throw around some confetti?

11. Smartphone Home Screen and Lock Screen Designs

Lots of kids have their own smartphones. Your student could graphic design a background image for kids to buy and use on their phones.

Here's an example of one.

They might want to write up and print out instructions for how to install the background image on an iPhone to hand out to customers.

That completes my list of things for kids to make and sell – it was so fun to brainstorm and find some of these cool ideas! Check out these market day ideas for 3rd graders, too. Leave a comment below with your kid’s own market day ideas and it might just get featured in the list above.