Holiday window display: a 40-minute marketing activity, grades 3–5

1. Hook (5 min): "In December, many stores decorate their front windows. Why would a store spend time and money on a window?" Guide students to: make people stop, come in and buy.
2. Teach three words (5 min). Target customer: the person you most want to reach. Message: the one idea you want them to remember. Slogan: a short, catchy line that carries the message.
3. Teams of three invent a shop (a bookstore, a sports store, a bakery, a pet shop) and choose a target customer, such as "kids who love soccer" or "grandparents buying gifts". Original names only, no real brands or characters.
4. Plan (5 min): teams answer three questions on the back of their paper. Who is our customer? What do we want them to feel? What will make them stop walking?
5. Design (15 min): teams draw the window with one main eye-catcher in the center, a few products, a price or sale sign, and a slogan of eight words or fewer. A crowded window is hard to read from the sidewalk.
6. Shopper walk (7 min): post the windows around the room. Students walk past each one for five seconds, like real shoppers, then put a sticky note on the window that made them want to go in, with one word about what caught their eye.

Debrief: read the sticky notes aloud. "Did the windows with the most votes reach their target customer? What do they have in common?" Students usually notice one big focus, strong colors and a short slogan.

Differentiation: give students who need support a slogan starter ("The best ___ for ___") and a pre-drawn window frame. For advanced students, design a second window for a different target customer selling the same products, then compare. For English learners, post target customer, message and slogan, each with an example from a sign in your school. For students with fine-motor needs, let them cut and arrange pictures from old catalogs, or lead the slogan writing.

Quick check: "Name your target customer and explain one choice in your window that you made for them."

If you try it, share the slogan that won your class's shopper walk.