The first day of our money unit I post a "Classroom Bank." I'd really love to show it to you but unfortunately because it has all their names on it, I can't. :( But it's really simple to make. All I do is get a piece of poster board and a meter stick. On the poster board I section it off into 1 inch rows, one row for each student. Then I write all their names along the side. Of course I add some cutesy details! Then I hang it up in the classroom, where it's nice and visible. It's the first thing they noticed when they walked in! There was quite a buzz around around the new addition to our room.
So I sit them all down and explain that today we starting to learn about money and throughout our money unit they have a chance to earn some moolah! They just LOVE that. The next question is, "How can we earn money?" So I tell them all the things they can do to earn money: stack their chair at the end of the day, random acts of kindness, turning in homework, following directions... the list goes on. I found some coin stamps at our local teacher store, they are a life saver! Every time someone earns money I stamp the coin in their "bank account."
Then I tell them in a few weeks, after our money test, we will be having a "Classroom Garage Sale" where they get to spend all the money they've earned! You might be wondering... "Where do you get the things to sell?" I send home this note with every child...
You can grab a free copy of the note here!
Yesterday morning, everyone counted up the money in their account and withdrew the money. Then they took their earnings out to the sale. You would have thought it was Christmas morning!
I had a WONDERFUL mom come in and run the whole thing! She priced and sold everything. It was so much fun!
Super cute idea to teach real life concepts! Thanks for posting :)
ReplyDelete-Julie
The Techie Teacher