Money Matters Lesson

Objective: The goal is to show the children that money is very important in the scheme of life. I want my students to have an understanding that money is an issue for every adult, rich or poor. Figuring out how to pay the bills and how to pay for extra expenses, for instance, penguin food can be a very exhausting and tiresome job. The children will be given a list of bills they have to pay, like heating and electric, phone, and then they must find a way to pay these bills with the money that they make at their occupation. They must then factor in costs of living, food, clothes, children, entertainment.

Procedure: To teach this lesson I will need to have fake checks, and fake bills and fake bank accounts. I will then give different money allowances to each group. Each group then will have to balance the money needed for bills, and write out these checks. Some groups will have more money than others. But this way it will teach the students that they will have to learn how to manage money. They will also have to keep track of the money in the bank. Each student’s money issues will be different, so some will have it easier to pay the bills each month and others will have a harder time scrapping up money.

Connection to Standards: This connects to standards because it covers how students need to learn idea of money and how to use it, and how credit works. Every student will benefit from this exercise on how saving money and keeping track of how much you need is important.

Student Product: Students will then have a bank account statement, and other fiscal records, credit card payments, and other household bills. They are going to manage these things and keep track of the money with their bank records.

Assessment: The children will be graded on how they interact within their group. How they participated in the group, and their final product. Making sure they accounted for all their bills and credit cards will be the main assessment. Also the students will have an evaluation sheet to show me how they thought they did and what they could do to improve their work.

Time: This project will only be given one day to work on. The students will form groups, and receive a piece of paper with their occupation, they will then be given the materials to pay all of their bills and write their checks. They should be able to finish the assignment that same day.

Differentiation: All of the students should be able to complete this assignment, it is a group project, so therefore those students who are in need of more help will not have to complete the project themselves, and they can help out in the areas that they are better in. They should all be able to participate and to enjoy the wonderful arguments about how to spend your money.