Teaching personal financial literacy to elementary students

             I’ll be honest…when I first read about Personal Financial Literacy being added to our state’s standards I was puzzled. I mean, really? The government wants us to teach about being financially responsible?!?! The irony is not lost on me.

            However, after I read through the standards, I realized that they were pretty reasonable. The standards in Texas require us to teach about savings, borrowing, lending, and making deposits and withdrawals. The problem is how to fit them into our already busy schedule.

            After a lot of thought, I thought that these standards would serve as a much needed review of money and basic math operations.

We began our Personal Financial Literacy with a basic money review…

   We then moved on to discussing saving and spending. We used coins to do this (continuous money review). We crossed out what was spent and circled what was saved.

We used charts and looked for patterns when calculating savings over time.

We made a foldable picture to serve as a reminder of the difference between a deposit and withdrawal.

We solved word problems involving deposits and withdrawals.

          One of the most interesting class conversations we had during this unit was over lending money. Things we discussed were:

• ·        What things have you let people borrow?
• ·        Why would you let people borrow those things? Why not?
• ·        What makes a person a good borrower?
• ·        What makes a person a bad borrower?
• ·        Why do you think a bank would consider a person a good borrower?
• ·        Why do you think a bank would consider a person a bad borrower?

The FREEBIE below is a great way to begin your Personal Financial Literacy unit! I hope that you can use it in your classroom.

Personal Finance and Money Unit FREEBIE

The complete Personal Finance Unit – No Prep can be found below.

Personal Finance and Money Unit - No Prep

Integrating Reading into Science

            Reading is a BIG part of primary grades. In order for students to be better readers, it is important that we integrate reading into ALL of our subjects. Reading and comprehending informational texts is crucial. Students have to be able to read nonfiction and obtain information. Science is an easy subject to incorporate reading. We are currently learning about the Solar System. We are reading informational texts about the different bodies in space. We are learning and practicing our reading and comprehension skills at the same time!

The samples from the picture above can be found in my “Exploring the Solar System No-Prep Unit.”

Exploring the Solar System No - Prep Unit

Below is a sample of one of my most downloaded FREEBIES! It comes with informational texts about the sun along with a sorting activity for the planets.

Solar System FREEBIE

Inventions that Changed the World

This week in Social Studies and Science, we are learning about inventions that changed the world! These are inventions that have made our lives so much easier. The inventions that we are studying include:

• Wheel
•   Plow
•   Printing press
• Refrigeration
•  Telegraph
• Steam engine
• Automobile
•  Light bulb

We started our unit by cutting out our “Invention Trifolds.” These were glued down into our interactive notebooks for reference during the week. 

The trifolds are a great way to start our conversations about the inventions because they cover what life was like BEFORE and AFTER the invention. Change is such a large component of Social Studies – these trifolds are a great way to show how the world and life changed as a result of their invention.

We will be continuing this unit throughout the week. The link for this complete unit can be found below!

Inventions that Changed the World Unit - No Prep

Encouraging Curiosity in Science

My boys have always been naturally curious about things in the environment. Since we live in the country, we spend a good part of our time outside and in the middle of nature. I learned when they were young that it was a cheap form of entertainment. It has also spurred on some interesting questions! I can’t count how many times my boys have seen something outside that required further research (I still encourage them to use encyclopedias, I’m old school that way).

            One of my oldest boy’s favorite memories from kindergarten was the day that his teacher decided to take the class outside after a heavy rain. Even though it was too wet to have recess on the playground, she turned their recess time into a learning experience. She gathered yarn (about 1 yard in length each) for each kid and some sandwich meat from the lunch room. She tied a small piece of the sandwich meat to the end of the strings for each kid. They then proceeded to go outside and into the ditch to teach them all how to fish for crawfish (crawdads)! I can only imagine the questions that it inspired of her kiddos. What do they eat? Where are they when it’s dry? Are they always in the ground? She even called ahead to some of the parents and let the kids take them home with them!

            Ever since that day, my son has LOVED to go crawfishing! As a matter of fact, all of my boys do. It just goes to show you how much of an impact your small lessons can have on your students.

            We spent the afternoon crawfishing today.  Is it my favorite thing to do? No. Do my kids love it? – Yes. Did we have some great conversations about animals and nature along the way? Absolutely!

            My youngest was not too interested in the fishing. He was more fascinated with the tracks in the mud made from worms and other critters. He also conducted a mini “Sink or Float” lesson off a small bridge down our road while his brothers were fishing.

            Below I have attached my Animal Habitats FREEBIE research form. It can be used for students of all ages to complete their own research on whatever animal they are curious about – enjoy!

Animal Habitat Form for Research

Interview With the Teacher's Kid

            Since it is Spring Break for us, I decided to change things up a bit. I decided that I would interview my middle son, Riley, to get his perspective on having his mom for his teacher. I am currently teaching him this year. My district is small – I am the only second grade teacher. I taught my oldest son two years ago and have Riley in my class this year. Here is how the interview went down…

Me: OK, let’s start with an easy question. What’s your favorite color?

Riley: Blue

Me: What’s your favorite thing to do?

Riley: Ride go-carts – have you seen how dirty the little one is right now?!

Me: Yes, it’s lovely. What’s your favorite subject?

Riley: Like in school?

Me: Yes

Riley: Recess, duh

Me: What’s been your favorite thing we’ve done so far in school this year?

Riley: Can I pick two things?

Me: Sure

Riley: Well, I really liked learning about the moon because we did that Oreo experiment (we made the phases of the moon with Oreos). But I really like what we’re learning about right now – you know the weather stuff. I really like learning about hurricanes.

Me: What’s the best thing about having your mom for a teacher?

Riley: (long pause, contemplative look) Getting hugs during the day (cheesy smile)

Me: What’s the worst thing about having your mom for a teacher?

Riley: (answers immediately) Your dirty looks

The link for Riley’s favorite Weather Unit is below. We’ll be finishing it after Spring Break. Happy Spring Break! - Kara

Complete Weather Unit

Weather Foldables for Interactive Notebooks and Lapbooks

Interactive notebooks are an awesome way to introduce or reinforce information. These Weather foldables serve as a source of information for the students. When printed regular size, the foldables fit perfectly into notebooks.

 

                However, there are some times when I would rather have a lapbook for my students. Lapbooks can serve as a quick and easy reference when studying a topic. I really like them for units of study that make take more than a week to cover. We simply add a little to them each day. For instance...WEATHER!

 I have found that I can accomplish this by simply adjusting the way that I print them. It’s really easier than you think.

Step 1

Select the pages that you want to print.

Step 2

Decide how many to print per page. You may want to experiment with this to see what size works best for you.  I have found that 2 or 4 per page works really well. Any more than 4 is really just too small.

All of these weather foldables (and more) are available in my Weather Foldables for Interactive Notebooks and Journals!

 Weather Foldables for Interactive Notebooks & Lapbooks

Duct Tape to the Rescue!

DUCT TAPE … Who doesn’t love duct tape? This year I’ve been having a problem of my dry erase markers disappearing. We do lots of activities with white boards and my markers have “wandered” away. I decided to solve this problem by wrapping them with decorative duct tape. Why not? It can fix just about everything else!