The Lemonade Stand Corner
Two lemonade stands, one busy corner, one back garden. The first conversation about being findable, disguised as coloring.
- Ages
- 3 to 8
- Time
- 10 to 15 minutes
- You Need
- Crayons. A printer helps but is not required.
What to do
- Draw two lemonade stands. Put one on a street corner where people are walking past. Put the other one behind a house, next to a shed.
- Colour both of them in properly. Make the one behind the house the nicer of the two. This matters.
- Now ask: which one sells more lemonade?
- Wait. Do not help. Let them explain their reasoning out loud before anybody confirms anything.
Ask afterward
- Is the lemonade different at the two stands?
- So what is different?
- Where else could you put it? Would that work better or worse?
- Can you think of something really good that nobody knows about?
For the grown-up
Making the hidden stand the prettier one is deliberate. It stops the child solving the puzzle on appearance and forces them onto location, which is the actual idea. Children who get it will often get slightly indignant about the unfairness, which is a good sign.
Read this first
What Is a Search Engine?
The activity works on its own, and it works considerably better after the explanation it belongs with.
Read the explanation