Lemonade stand game for kids
Run a lemonade stand for one week. Check the forecast, make your lemonade, set a price, and try to finish with more than the $10 you started with. Free, no sign-up, built for ages 8 to 10.
There is a lemonade stand in the Penny Time app too
Penny Time quests pitch small made-up ventures, like a lemonade stand, and your child decides on their own phone or tablet whether to back one with part of their allowance.
Forecast: Warm and sunny, 78°F
20 cups of Classic lemonade cost $6.00 in supplies. You have $10.00.
Ran a good stand? Try the real decision.
In Penny Time, your child can back quests like a lemonade stand with part of their own allowance. What they put in always comes back and only the reward is at stake, so they learn risk without losing a cent.
How do you play the lemonade stand game?
In Penny Time's lemonade stand game, you run a stand for 7 days with $10 to start. Each morning you check the forecast, pick a recipe, decide how many cups to make with the cash you have, and set a price. Hot days bring more customers, and they will pay more for a cold drink. Rainy days bring very few. Any cups you don't sell get poured out at the end of the day, so making too many costs you money.
Your result is your profit: the money customers paid minus what you spent on supplies. The forecast is the same for every player, so a class or a family can play the same week and compare what each person earned and why.
What the lemonade stand game teaches
Profit is what is left after costs. Every cup costs money before anyone buys it. Selling 30 cups at $1.00 brings in $30, but if those cups cost $9 in lemons, sugar, ice and cups, the profit is $21.
Price changes how many people buy. Charge too little and you work hard for almost nothing. Charge too much and customers walk past. The right price moves with demand, and people pay more for lemonade on a hot day than on a rainy one.
Leftovers are a cost too. Lemonade you can't sell gets poured out, and the money spent making it is gone. Kids learn to plan for the day they expect, not the best day they can imagine.
You can only spend what you have. The stand starts with $10, so on day 1 you can't make 100 cups. Growing the business means keeping today's profit to buy more supplies tomorrow.
How to use the game in the classroom
The game runs in the browser with no accounts or downloads, so it works on a projector or on student devices. Everyone gets the same 7-day forecast, which makes results easy to compare. A simple 20-minute plan:
- Play Day 1 together on the projector. Let the class vote on the recipe, the number of cups and the price, then open the stand.
- Pairs play Days 2 to 7 and write down their profit each day.
- Compare final profits. Ask two pairs to explain how they priced the hot days and the rainy day.
Questions for the debrief:
- Which day made the most money, and what made it good?
- Did anyone sell out? How many customers walked away?
- Did anyone pour out a lot of cups? What did those cups cost?
- If you played the week again, what one thing would you change?
More free lessons and games for teachers are on our classroom page.
Playing at home: tips by age
Ages 6-7: play together. You read the forecast out loud and they pick the price. Keep the talk to one idea: sunny days sell more.
Ages 8-10: let them run the whole week on their own, then ask them to explain one decision. This is the age the game is built for.
Ages 11 and up: before they set a price, ask them to work out the cost per cup and how many cups they need to sell to cover the day's supplies. That number is the break-even point, and it turns the game into a real math problem.
From a pretend stand to a real money decision
Deciding whether a lemonade stand is worth backing is the kind of choice kids make in the Penny Time app. Its quests pitch small made-up ventures, a lemonade stand among them, and your child decides whether to put part of their own allowance behind one. The money they put in always comes back, and only the reward is at stake.
Frequently Asked Questions
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It is built for kids ages 8 to 10, who can add up prices and compare numbers on their own. Kids 6 and 7 can play with a parent reading the forecast out loud. Kids 11 and up can add a challenge: work out the cost per cup and how many cups they need to sell to cover the day before they set a price.
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Yes. It runs in any web browser with no sign-up, no download and nothing to install, so it works on a laptop, a tablet or a classroom projector.
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There is no single winning setting. The goal is to finish the 7 days with as much profit as you can. Strong weeks usually charge more on hot days, make fewer cups when rain is forecast, and avoid pouring out a lot of unsold lemonade.
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Fresh lemonade does not keep until tomorrow, so any cups you do not sell are thrown away at the end of the day, and the money you spent making them is gone. A bakery or a food truck has the same problem, which is why they plan how much to make each day.
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Profit is the money customers paid you minus what you spent on supplies. If you sell 20 cups at $1.00 and they cost $6.00 to make, your profit for the day is $14.00.
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Yes. Every player gets the same 7-day forecast, so a class can play the same week and compare final profits. At the end, the Share button copies a link to the finished week that a student can send to the teacher.
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No. It is Penny Time's own version of the classic idea, made for kids 8 to 10, with a short debrief for parents and teachers after the week ends.
Raise kids who understand how money works
Download the app, add your child, and connect their phone or tablet by scanning a code. About a minute, no email needed for kids.
How setup works for you and your child →
No ads. No data selling. No credit card.
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