Shark Tank for Kids: Ideas, Rules, and How to Run the Activity

There is a reason Shark Tank has been on the air for over a decade, and it is the same reason a Shark Tank activity works so well with kids: watching someone pitch a real idea, under pressure, with money on the line, is genuinely gripping. Turn your kid into the entrepreneur, and something clicks. Suddenly math has a point, talking to people matters, and a wild idea becomes a real project they care about.

This is one of the best single activities you can run with a kid, because it bundles so many real-world skills into one thrilling project: entrepreneurship, public speaking, persuasion, and actual money math. It works in a classroom with thirty kids and it works at your kitchen table with one. And it is a perfect example of the kind of hands-on, real-world learning that builds the life skills kids actually need. Whether you are a homeschool parent hunting for an entrepreneurship activity for kids or a teacher who wants a business pitch for kids the whole class will love, Shark Tank for kids delivers. Here is exactly how to run this kids business pitch, step by step.

If you would rather skip the setup, the Shark Tank pitch project in the library lays the whole thing out step by step, with the pitch sheet, the numbers worksheet, and the shark question cards. This post is the free version: the ideas, the rules, and how to run it yourself.

What is a Shark Tank activity for kids?

A Shark Tank activity for kids borrows the format of the TV show: someone with a business idea pitches it to a panel of investors (the "sharks"), who grill them with questions and then decide whether to invest. In the kid version, your child invents a business or product, works out the basic numbers, prepares a short pitch, and presents it to a panel, family members at home, or classmates and a teacher in a classroom. The sharks ask questions, then offer pretend "investment" or feedback.

It can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. A single kid can pitch a lemonade-stand idea to two parents on a Tuesday night, or a whole class can spend a week building businesses and hold a pitch day with real prizes. The bones are always the same: invent, prepare, pitch, defend.

Why it works: everything it teaches at once

Most school activities teach one thing. A Shark Tank activity teaches a stack of them, and because it is fun and high-stakes, the learning actually sticks:

• Entrepreneurship: spotting a problem, inventing a solution, and thinking about who would pay for it.
• Real-world math: pricing, costs, profit, and simple projections, the kind of money math no worksheet makes feel real.
• Public speaking: standing up, speaking clearly, and holding a room, one of the most valuable and most avoided skills.
• Persuasion and storytelling: making people care about an idea in ninety seconds.
• Handling pressure: thinking on their feet when the sharks ask a hard question.
• Resilience: hearing "no" or tough feedback and staying standing, which is its own lesson.

That is a semester of soft skills in one project, and kids beg to do it again. It pairs especially well with the communication skills and financial literacy you are already building.

How to run a Shark Tank activity, step by step

Here is a simple, repeatable structure. Spread it over a few days, or run a lighter version in an afternoon.

Step 1: Set the scene

Explain the premise, and if you can, watch one short kid-appropriate Shark Tank pitch together so they see the format: the entrepreneur explains their product, makes an ask, and answers questions. Keep it light and exciting. The goal is for them to think, "I want to do that."

Step 2: Invent the business

The best businesses solve a problem, so start there. Ask: what is something that annoys you, or something you wish existed? A better dog leash, a snack for picky eaters, an app that does their chores. It does not have to be realistic. It has to be theirs. Let the idea be a little wild; the thinking is what matters. Give younger kids a few prompts if they get stuck.

Step 3: Build the basics (the numbers)

This is where real math sneaks in. Help them work out: a name, what the product is, what it costs to make (materials), what they would sell it for, and therefore the profit per sale. Then the fun projection: if they sold 100, how much would they make? This is pricing, subtraction, and multiplication with genuine stakes, and it is the part kids remember. Keep it age-appropriate; a nine-year-old needs simpler numbers than a fourteen-year-old.

Step 4: Write the pitch

A great pitch has four parts, and teaching this structure is a gift on its own: the hook (grab attention), the problem (what this solves), the solution (the product and why it is great), and the ask (what they want from the sharks, usually an "investment" for a share of the business). Keep it to about a minute. Help them write it in their own words, then trim it down.

Step 5: Make it visual

Have them create something to show: a poster, a simple slide, a drawing of the product, or even a rough prototype made from cardboard. Building the visual makes the idea concrete and gives nervous kids something to hold and point to. It also sneaks in design and planning.

Step 6: Practice

Rehearsal is where the nerves come down. Have them practice the pitch on you, on a sibling, on the mirror. Coach gently: speak up, slow down, make eye contact. Warn them that the sharks will ask questions, and brainstorm a few they might get ("How much does it cost to make? Why would I buy this and not something cheaper?") so they are not blindsided.

Step 7: Pitch day

Set it up like the real thing. The sharks (parents, siblings, classmates, teacher) sit as a panel. The kid pitches. Then the sharks ask real questions and, at the end, decide whether to "invest" and why. Give it a little ceremony, it makes the moment matter, and the pressure is exactly what builds the skill. For a class, run several pitches and let everyone play shark for someone else.

Step 8: Debrief

Afterward, talk about it. What went well? What would they change? What did the sharks respond to? This reflection is where a fun activity turns into real learning, and it is where a kid who got a "no" learns that feedback is information, not failure.

In the Membership

The Shark Tank Pitch

If you want the whole thing laid out for you, our Shark Tank Pitch guide walks a kid through inventing the business, building the numbers, and delivering the pitch, step by step. Open and go, no prep.

Unlock with membership$99/year or $15/mo · 120+ activities

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A 60-second pitch, start to finish

Here is what a finished pitch sounds like, built on the four parts from step 4. It is a made-up dog-walking business, about 150 words, which reads aloud in about a minute. Kids copy the shape, not the words.

• The hook: "Raise your hand if your dog has ever chewed a shoe because nobody had time to walk it."
• The problem: "Six families on our street have dogs, and in four of them the parents work until five. Those dogs wait all day for a walk."
• The solution: "Pawsome Walks is an after-school dog-walking service. I walk each dog for 20 minutes right after school, and I send the owner a photo so they know it happened. I charge $5 a walk. My only cost is poop bags, about 10 cents a walk, so I keep $4.90. Four dogs, five days a week, is 20 walks and $98 a week."
• The ask: "I am asking for $20 for a second leash and a bag of treats, in exchange for 10 percent of my profits for the first month. Thank you. Any questions?"

Notice what it has: a real problem on a real street, a number for everything, and an ask the sharks can say yes or no to. A good shark will do the math on that last line (10 percent of about $390 is a lot more than $20), and that is exactly the conversation you want.

The pitch deck on one page

Kids do not need slides. One sheet of paper with five boxes does the job, doubles as the poster for pitch day, and is what the sharks point at when they ask questions.

1. 1Name and one line: what the business is, in one sentence.
2. 2The problem: who has it, and how you know (who you asked).
3. 3The product: what customers get, with a drawing or a photo.
4. 4The numbers: cost per sale, price, what you keep per sale, and sales per week.
5. 5The ask: how much, what it is for, and what the shark gets back.

What the sharks should ask

Half the value of this activity is in the questions, because answering them on the spot is where kids really grow. If you are playing shark, ask real but fair questions:

• "Who is this for? Who would actually buy it?"
• "How much does it cost to make, and how much are you selling it for?"
• "Why would I buy this instead of something cheaper that already exists?"
• "What is the hardest part of actually making this happen?"
• "If I gave you the money, what would you spend it on first?"

Push a little, but keep it warm. The goal is to stretch their thinking, not to crush them. A good shark makes a kid think harder and still feel proud of what they built.

Adapting it by age

Ages 8 to 10

Keep it simple and playful. The business can be silly, the numbers small and round (make it for $2, sell it for $5), and the pitch short. Focus on the fun of inventing and the bravery of presenting. Do not worry about realistic economics; celebrate the idea and the courage to stand up and share it. If the business angle is a stretch for a younger kid, inventing a sport or designing a board game builds the same pitch-and-playtest muscles.

Ages 11 to 14

Push for more real thinking. Real costs, real pricing, a genuine profit calculation, a sharper pitch, and tougher shark questions. Tweens can handle the idea of investment for a percentage of the company, market research ("did you ask anyone if they would buy it?"), and defending their numbers. This is where it starts to look like a real business, and where some kids catch the entrepreneurship bug for real.

Classroom version vs home version

As a shark tank classroom activity, this shines as a multi-day project: teams or individuals build businesses over a week, then hold a pitch day where classmates and the teacher play sharks, maybe with a small prize for the winning pitch. It is a shark tank lesson plan that needs almost no prep, and a shark tank activity for students they remember years later. It builds collaboration, public speaking to a real audience, and a ton of engagement.

At home, it scales down beautifully to one kid and a couple of parent-sharks at the kitchen table. You lose the class audience but you gain focus and one-on-one coaching, and you can stretch it across a lazy week or knock out a lighter version in an afternoon. Either way, the core learning is identical.

Take it further: a real micro-business

For the kid who catches fire, do not stop at the pretend pitch. Let them actually build the thing. A real lemonade stand, a small craft business, a service for neighbors. Turning a Shark Tank pitch into an actual micro-business is where the biggest learning lives, because now the numbers are real and the customers are real. Some of the most capable teenagers you will meet started exactly here. If they need a starting point, the kid business ideas checklist has twenty real ones sorted by age, each with the number to work out first.

A Shark Tank activity is proof that the best learning rarely looks like school. Give a kid a business to invent, some real numbers to wrestle, and a room to pitch it in, and they will practice entrepreneurship, math, public speaking, and resilience without once feeling like they are doing schoolwork. Run it once and you will be running it again, because kids ask for it.

And if you want the whole activity laid out so you can just open it and go, that is exactly what the Anywhere Learning membership is for: real-world, hands-on projects for ages 6 to 14, from business pitches to budgets to building things, ready to run with no planning the night before.