My Lemonade Stand

by Olivia—4th grade

I make lemonade stands every year in the summer. This year I started in the spring. The reason most kids make lemonade stands is to earn money. I'm trying to earn $100 to get a mermaid tail. Making a lemonade stand is really fun and a great way to spend your summer. I have a lot of experience running a lemonade stand and I make great lemonade.

Before you start you have to get supplies . First you have to get lemonade mix or make lemonade with sugar, lemon juice, and water. Get some cups. If you want different sizes get more than one size. You must have change to give to the customers. You need something that shows how much the lemonade costs. If you have different sizes show that too. You will always need a stand that says lemonade, put the lemonade and the thing that's holding your money on your stand. You may have other people working for you but you might want to give them free lemonade or pay them because they will probably get upset otherwise. Last of all you need a board of some kind that says something like, “Ice Cold Lemonade sold here”, so people know what you're selling. Here's a tip: try to have a goal for the day like $10 and when you get to that goal be done.

After you get your supplies you have to make the lemonade. If you got lemonade mix get a cup of water and put the amount of mix the container you got the lemonade in says you need in the cup. If you don't have lemonade mix all you really need is water, lemon juice, and sugar.

After you get your supplies you have to set up. Put up your sign and table. Put your money box and lemonade on your table. Put up your other sign that says how much the different sizes cost or just the one size. Maybe put up some paper signs around your neighborhood. Try putting them on posts.

When you start you might want to yell something like, “Lemonade for sale. Get your ice-cold lemonade.” When people come ask them what size they want or if you don't have different sizes give the lemonade to the customers and they will give you the money. Always accept tips. If someone drives up and just hands you money, ask if they want lemonade. If they say no, let that person drive away.

After a day of hard work, clean up and put the money you earned in a safe place. Take down your sign so people know you're done. Put the leftover lemonade in the fridge. Leave the signs on the posts unless it is going to rain. Bring the cups inside so they don't get dirty. Put away the sign that says how much it costs. Then you should count up your money.

Last year I earned $51. I spent some and I'm earning some back. You will have to pay for your lemonade so you might have less then what your earned. Lemonade stands are really fun for me but a lot of work. I hope you will like them too!

How to Draw Still Life

By Marcus—grade 5

Have you ever wanted to draw something that looks real? With the technique called still life it’s easy to draw things that look real. It’s not hard to do this if you follow these steps.

The first thing to do is to find what you are drawing. This can be an object or a person. The person should be standing or sitting still. If it’s your first time try something simple like a crayon. Crayons are great to draw when you want to make a still life.

You should always be close to your object because you want to get a lot of detail.

Also always use pencil. It makes nice lines that are thin. Put the pencil on the side to make shading a breeze. You can use markers and crayons too. They don’t work as well but you can use them if you have the skill.

Next you want to draw basic shapes without detail and shading. (Breaking down the shapes helps) For an example if you are drawing a crayon you would draw the long part that you hold first. To make this simple you would draw a rectangle. Then you would draw a triangle on the small side of the rectangle for the tip of the crayon. You can do this with other objects; just break the object down into simple shapes.

So now you want to add detail on the shapes by curving your lines and connecting your lines. On the crayon you would curve the short sides of the rectangle and if you haven’t yet connected the triangle to the rectangle you should do that.

Now you add on some details. These can be prints or markings on your model. On a crayon you would draw where the paper/label starts and ends (if there is paper/label) and you would draw the lines (if there is any) and write any words on the crayon. You might find more details on different objects. Just draw every detail you see.

It’s time for the hardest step, shading. You look where the light is hitting the object. Some parts will be bright and some darker. One tip is to always shade with pencil. Depending on the way you hold the pencil and press the pencil on the paper you will get different shades of gray that are perfect for shading. Just shade where you see lighter and darker tones.

You have drawn a still life. See, drawing something that looks real is not that hard. Now if you want to add more to the drawing you can add: color, background or even more still life objects. The possibilities are endless.