Unit Plan: Financial Literacy
Math / Grade 4-7
Big Ideas
1. Number represents and describes quantity: Parts of wholes can be represented by fractions and decimals
2. Developing computational fluency comes from a strong sense of number.
Concepts:
- Monetary calculations, percent calculations, value of money
- Consumer math, budgeting, monetary calculations
Essential Questions
Students will keep considering…
- Why is money important?
- How do values determine spending habits ?
- What is financial responsiblty?
- How is worth determined?
Evaluative Criteria
CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT
Teachers will be assessing students’ ability to:
- perform whole number and decimal monetary operations
- make reasonable estimates
- make logical and realistic spending goals
- create a working budget
- solve problems using percent calculations (at higher levels)
- make thoughtful reflections about the earning and spending choices they make, that relate to their personal values and beliefs
DIFFERENTIATION
ADAPTATIONS:
- students can work at any of the grade levels, to suit their level of skill and understanding
- budget sheets can be scaffolded for individual students and levels
- the Chore Chart for Grades 5-7 can be differentiated in terms of the value of each chore
- values for the chores can be pre-assigned, or you can have a discussion surrounding what each chore should be worth
- values at the higher level could include algebraic expressions (i.e. a base chore would be worth n, while other chores could be worth something in relation to n)
- forgetting to do a chore could have a negative impact on a budget (a way to incorporate negative integers and the concept of debt)
- technology connections could include using Excel to create budgets, as well as various iPad budgeting apps
EXTENSIONS:
- all levels: create a graph to represent your budget (pictographs, line graphs, bar graphs, circle graphs; discuss which graphs would be appropriate and how you might use them)
- all levels: turn your budget into a board game to demonstrate the concepts of earning and spending by moving forward and backward on the game board; play The Game of Life and Monopoly with students
- Grade 7 level: calculate what percent of your earnings are going to each item/category in your budget
Monitoring Progress
Formative Assessment throughout:
During class discussions, small group discussions and one on one conversations.
Exit slips after various lessons. Possible frame could be “The most important thing to know about …. is…”
Review of the work students do during the thinking routines.
Assessment of practice activities and students’ ability to perform the monetary calculations.
Imbed “What Makes You Say That?” (Making Thinking Visible Routine) into all class and individual discussions.
Resources
PICTURE BOOKS
- The History of Money: From Bartering to Banking by Martin Jenkins
- National Geographic Kids Everything Money: A Wealth of Facts, Photos and Fun by Kathy Furgang
WEBSITES
- It’s My Life – Money / pbskids.org
- “Cha-Ching: Earn, Save, Spend and Donate / YouTube.com
- www.visiblethinkingpz.org
TEXTBOOKS
- Math Makes Sense Grades 4 and 7
PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES
- Making Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church
BLACK LINE MASTERS
Reflection
How will teachers and their students reflect on and evaluate the completed project?
Teacher:
Next time I teach this unit I would…
Allow students to select the short stories that link to Identity.
Student:
My students needed:
Process:
Product:
Content:
Potential Student Misunderstanding:
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
EXECUTE THE LEARNING PLAN
LEARNING EVENTS:
- These learning events/activities are suggested activities only.
- In some cases the plans are not fully completed lesson plans.
- The teacher may choose some lessons/activities to span over several lessons.
- Teachers may add, revise and adapt these lessons based on the needs of their students, their personal preferences for resources, and the use of a variety of instructional techniques.
Learning events are enriched for students when teachers consider the “WHERE TO” acronym and guiding organizer by Wiggins and McTighe.
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why is money important?
- How do values determine spending habits ?
- What is financial responsiblty?
- How is worth determined?
Acquisition-Meaning-Transfer
Lesson 1 - Why Is Money Important?
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why is money important?
- How do values determine spending habits ?
- What is financial responsiblty?
- How is worth determined?
Why Is Money Important?
1. Using Chalk Talk (Making Thinking Visible strategy), have students answer this question. Reinforce/model the different conversational moves they can make while working through this. Students can answer the question, can comment on others, ask further questions. Students start in their own small groups, with their own chart papers to record on, then rotate to other groups, in order to add to the discussion. (A)
2. Debrief afterwards to hear each other’s opinions. This can be done as a whole group discussion, or use Claim, Support, Question (A, M) to have students answer the question personally. Alternatively, students who may have changed their original answers/opinions regarding this questions could use the “I Used to Think, Now I Think” routine. (M, T)
Lesson 2 - How Has Money Evolved Over Time? How Has/Is Worth Determined?
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why is money important?
- How do values determine spending habits ?
- What is financial responsiblty?
- How is worth determined?
How Has Money Evolved Over Time? How Has/Is Worth Determined?
1. Ask further questions about how our system of money has evolved over time. Make Social Studies connections to different early civilizations and how the concept of worth even started. An option here would be to do the Think, Puzzle, Explore Thinking Routine to have students think about what they already know about this, as well as what they may still wonder about and how they might go about finding the answers to their puzzles. (A, M, T)
Lesson 3 - What Can We Do With Money?
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why is money important?
- How do values determine spending habits ?
- What is financial responsiblty?
- How is worth determined?
What Can We Do With Money?
1. Show the YouTube video “Cha-Ching: Earn, Save, Spend and Donate” do lead into a discussion of the different things we can do with money and the personal choices we make with it (A)
2. Discuss how we use money today. Have students reflect on their personal experiences with earning and spending money. What has gone well? What roadblocks have they encountered? (M)
Lesson 4 - Spending Money
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why is money important?
- How do values determine spending habits ?
- What is financial responsiblty?
- How is worth determined?
Spending Money
1. Introduce the term expenses and give the students opportunities to spend money. This could be done using manipulatives, pen and paper, or with a calculator. Options could include:
a) Giving students a set amount of money, and allowing them to determine what they will buy, and how much money they would have leftover. (A)
b) Repeating option a and buying multiple items. (A)
c) Role playing the customer and the cashier to determine if change given is accurate. (A, M)
d) Creating a shop in your classroom for students to purchase items from, or providing them with actual store flyers. (A, M)
e) Have students buy multiples of one item (connect to algabraic expressions, and t-tables). (A)
f) Explore the concepts of discount, tip and tax with the higher level groups/students. (A)
g) Explore the concept of unit price and what is the better deal between two products with differing prices. (A) (T)
h) Explore the concepts of debt and credit; make connections to Social Studies curriculum and the concepts of government spending at different levels of government. (M, T)
i) Textbook work : Grade 4 Math Makes Sense, pages 308-311 (“Monetary Calculations”); and Grade 7 Math Makes Sense, pages 114-116 and pages 124-125 (Percent calculations”). (A, M)
Lesson 5 - Donating Money
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why is money important?
- How do values determine spending habits ?
- What is financial responsiblty?
- How is worth determined?
Donating Money
1. Discuss what this actually means and why would donating money be important? Do a Value Line activity where students place themselves along the line according to how important they think it is to donate money to those in need. This would be another opportunity to do the Claim, Support, Question Thinking Routine. (M, T)
2. Brainstorm a list of possible charities that students may have heard of (i.e. SPCA, ME to WE, Red Cross); discuss the various ways to donate money and the organizations involved (i.e. gofundme, kickstarter, Keva, Free the Children, religious charitites, World Vision, Plan Canada, Habitat for Humanity) (A, M, T)
3. Pose the question: Are some charities better than others? How do you know? Lead students into understanding that not all money donated to charities goes directly to the groups they are supposed to support; some goes to administrative fees. Would this affect who you donated to? (A, M)
Lesson 6 - Earning Money
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why is money important?
- How do values determine spending habits ?
- What is financial responsiblty?
- How is worth determined?
Earning Money
1. Earning money – Introduce the term income and discuss how some income may be fixed, and other may be variable. Give the students opportunities to earn money. This could again be done using manipulatives, pen and paper, or with a calculator. Options could include:
a) Brainstorm different ways they could earn money, in age appropriate ways. (A)
b) Give the students jobs around the classroom that they could do to earn classroom currency. (M)
c) Give students real life jobs and their rate of pay; use this to calculate various earnings dependent on how much they work; put these jobs on cards and have students rotate through them and discuss the differences between low and high paying jobs; make links to Career Education and how different careers/jobs have different rates of pay. (A, M)
d) Give students scenarios around earning an allowance – how could they do it? Set weekly rates or differing costs for different chores? Discuss the concept of worth: Should one chore be worth than another? (A, M)
Lesson 7 - Needs Vs. Wants
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why is money important?
- How do values determine spending habits ?
- What is financial responsiblty?
- How is worth determined?
Needs Vs. Wants
1. Discuss the difference between needs and wants. Have students brainstorm their own lists of needs and wants in their own lives. Have them role-play and brainstorm needs and wants of children in different countries, or their parents. How do you prioritize your wants? Have students answer the following questions:
a) I need to spend money on…
b) I want to spend money on… (A, M, T)
2. Explore the pbskids.org website “It’s My Life – Money” section. (A)
Lesson 8 - Saving Money and Setting Goals
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why is money important?
- How do values determine spending habits ?
- What is financial responsiblty?
- How is worth determined?
Saving Money and Setting Goals
1. Discuss challenges that may get in the way of saving money and how you could deal with them. An individual reflection piece here could be the sentence starter: “Saving money is….” (M)
2. Set short and long term spending goals and have students develop a plan to meet those goals. (M)
3. Have students create a “How to Save Money” poster, powerpoint, video to teach other kids how to do it (M)
Lesson 9 - Putting It All Together
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why is money important?
- How do values determine spending habits ?
- What is financial responsiblty?
- How is worth determined?
Putting It All Together
1. Developing a budget – putting the spending and earning together. Options could include:
a) Simple budgeting worksheets that work with money in and money out (extend this to positive and negative integers for higher levels. (A, M)
b) Developing a list of common expenses students and adults may have. (A, M)
c) Discuss the concepts of being financially literate and financially responsible. (A)
The following resources are made available through the British Columbia Ministry of Education. For more information, please visit BC’s New Curriculum.
Big Ideas
The Big Ideas consist of generalizations and principles and the key concepts important in an area of learning. The Big Ideas represent what students will understand at the completion of the curriculum for their grade. They are intended to endure beyond a single grade and contribute to future understanding.
Core Competencies
Communications Competency
The set of abilities that students use to impart and exchange information, experiences and ideas, to explore the world around them, and to understand and effectively engage in the use of digital media
Thinking Competency
The knowledge, skills and processes we associate with intellectual development
Social Competency
The set of abilities that relate to students’ identity in the world, both as individuals and as members of their community and society
Curricular Competencies & Content
Curricular Competencies are the skills, strategies, and processes that students develop over time. They reflect the “Do” in the Know-Do-Understand model of curriculum. The Curricular Competencies are built on the thinking, communicating, and personal and social competencies relevant to disciplines that make up an area of learning.
Additional Resources
First People's Principles of Learning
To read more about First People’s Principles of Learning, please click here.
For classroom resources, please visit the First Nations Education Steering Committee.
