Project on Making Lemonade for School Children

There are many benefits to students who learn how to make lemonade. A lemonade stand can be done to raise money for the school or another good cause. It can also be done at home to make personal money. That can lead to some lessons in finance. Making lemonade is also a good home economics project. It teaches children how to make their own drink if a ready made drink is not available.

Basic Lemonade

Begin your project by teaching the children how to make a basic lemonade. Divide the children into groups of two or three. Make sure each group has a pitcher, measuring cup, knife, and a cutting board. Instruct the children on how to properly handle the knife. If the children are too young, cut the lemons into wedges the night before and just hand out the wedges. Each group needs one lemon for each cup of water that they will be placing in their pitcher. It is best if you have them make enough for their group so if there are three group members, three lemons will be needed. Have the children add as many cups of water as there are group members. Then cut up the same amount of lemons. The lemons must have the seeds removed first. Then the lemons can be squeezed over the pitchers so that the lemon juice enters the pitcher. Finally, the children need to add sugar to sweeten up the lemonade. Have the children measure out 1/4 of cup of sugar for each group member and add it to the pitcher. Mix well and pour in to individual glasses.

Optional: Give each child a drink umbrella to place in their cup.

Pink Lemonade

Now that children understand how to make lemonade, they can make different flavors. The most popular flavor after the original lemonade is pink lemonade. Have the children make the lemonade the way they made the original version. Then have them add half a teaspoon of grenadine for each cup of water in their pitcher. So a group of two children would use one teaspoon and a group of three children would use one and a half teaspoon of grenadine. Finish the pink lemonade by adding one cherry for each student. Mix the ingredients together and serve in individual glasses.

Cucumber Lemonade

You will need a blender for this version. Again, you will want the students to use the basic lemonade method to make lemonade. Then cut some cucumbers in to fourths and give one fourth to each student. Have all of the students in the group place their cucumber pieces in the blender. Each group will have to take a turn using the blender. Choose the puree button. When the cucumber has been pureed, take it out and have the students place it in a fine mesh strainer to remove any pieces of cucumber that still remain. Pour the cucumber puree in the lemonade pitcher and mix. Tell each group to pour one glass of cucumber lemonade for each member. Enjoy.

Tips: Once students understand the basic lemonade recipe, and how to use the blender to puree, they can make any kind of lemonade they want. Let them know they could puree strawberries or raspberries and add that to the lemonade. Pretty much any fruit or vegetable that they can puree can be added to the basic lemonade recipe.