At a time when many adults don't know how to plan wisely for the future, even our youngest citizens can start to develop "money smarts." The world still reels from the fallout of the economic tailspin precipitated by unfortunate, overly optimistic, or shortsighted institutional and individual financial choices. Now more than ever, we need to educate ourselves and help our students become financially literate -- be able to make sound decisions about managing personal finances and understand the fundamentals of our national and global economy.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has proposed a sequence of economic terms and concepts to be introduced in the elementary grades:
Even young students can develop healthy habits of saving toward short-term and long-term goals, and intermediate students can learn to research and invest virtual money in the stock market.
Happily, we can tap an abundance of financial literacy resources for each age group.
With this site students will learn how to earn and save money with interactive games.
This site includes information on every world currency and up-to-date currency converters.
BizKids, a website and public television series supported by America's Credit Unions, includes external links to finance games, activities, savings and debt calculators, and information on starting a kid business. Teacher resources include support materials for the television episodes and online video segments.
This site offers tips and practices teachers and students can use in the classroom. Students can choose their age group and complete practices applicable to their age.
Many online games relate to money or finance, but they often tend to be more diverting than enlightening. A game related to financial literacy can become a richer learning opportunity if it is explored hand-in-hand with lessons, discussion, and time for making personal connections.
Good stock market games utilize real-life resources and decision-making.
In the Stock Market Game, a program of the Foundation for Investor Education, students collaborate and negotiate in teams, drawing on Internet research and current news as they compete to build a successful virtual portfolio. The program requires an initial teacher training session and a nominal annual registration fee. (Grade 4-adult)
This financial literacy game allows players to invest or earn money over time (even by doing offline chores, verified by parent e-mails) and make saving and spending choices.
Lemonade Stand games abound -- one of the better ones can be found at Coolmath-Games.com -- but a more "fruitful" exploration might be found through the lesson plans and resources at Lemon Squeeze --The Lemonade Stand. Here, students can take part in a lemonade taste test, act out a play, and compile, analyze, and synthesize data from the play to draw conclusions about supply and demand.
This cute site has lots of interactive elements woven into a financial literacy theme, but some of the games have minimal learning value.
Students practice mental math skills with this money counting game.
Economic vocabulary cards and a teacher's guide for K-6 can be printed from the site, or a free set of cards can be ordered online. The site includes related offline games, activities, and assessments, as well as a glossary and chart of concepts organized by grade level.
This free simple printable game for all ages uses beans as "allowance" and promotes discussion as it guides students in prioritizing spending choices.
This free printable comic book for middle-schoolers presents basic economic concepts through a story of the development of the economy of a mythical island.
A Penny Saved: Why and How We Save and How Saving Helps the U.S. Economy
A 24-page resource in comic book form, with dense vocabulary and concepts geared for middle and high school students, can be downloaded from a graphic link on this page (83 mb).
Federal Reserve System Publications Catalog
This catalog includes free comic books, available online or up to 35 hard copies, on a variety of economic topics, including:
This free downloadable 86-page resource book for middle-school teachers includes four finance lessons with real-life examples, activity pages, and teaching suggestions.
Financial Literacy for Children and Youth
This book explains why financial literacy needs to become an important component of the K-12 curriculum in U.S. schools.
This site includes more than 600 financial literacy lesson plans for all grade levels, complete with related activity sheets and web links. (The Lemon Squeeze plans come from this site.)
This site compiles economic resources from 20 U.S. governmental agencies in one place. You Are Here is a virtual mall where middle school students can learn consumer concepts; the majority of the links at MyMoney are geared for teens and adults.
Junior Achievement utilizes trained volunteer role models to engage nearly 10 million elementary, middle-, and high-school students in interactive business and economic programs annually. Programs at the elementary level include Ourselves (K), Our Families (Grade 1), Our Community (Grade 2), Our City (Grade 3), Our Region (Grade 4), and Our Nation (Grade 5), incorporating principles of globalization and entrepreneurship by the upper elementary grades. In select areas, the JA BizTown program includes a day-long visit to an interactive simulated town. Middle-school programs include JA America Works, JA Economics for Success, and JA Global Marketplace. JA $ave USA lessons for elementary or middle-school grades can be downloaded from the site. There are extensive high-school and after-school JA programs.
Council for Economic Education
This site includes print, online, and linked economic resources.
Jumpstart Coalition Clearinghouse
The website of the Jumpstart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy includes a clearinghouse of extensive links to other financial resources, National Standards in K 12 Personal Financial Education, and "reality check" personal checklists.
Resources for purchase on this site include a Money Savvy Kids curriculum, book club series, and a Money Savvy Pig -- a piggy bank with four compartments labeled Save, Spend, Donate, and Invest.
Habits and a mindset developed in childhood can set the stage for responsible financial planning throughout life. If young children receive a small allowance and occasional gift money and begin to follow the "ten percent rule" -- saving 10 percent of all earnings -- and sustain that practice throughout their working lives, they can save millions by retirement. As students develop financial literacy, they apply math and thinking skills in rich, meaningful ways. We "owe" it to them to start now!
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Article by Wendy Petti
Education World®
Copyright © 2010 Education World
04/04/2015
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