5th grade - 2018-2019
Cycle 1 - Financial Literacy
Financial Literacy is an important topic in our lives today. There is a movement in the education world to bring this subject to elementary students and begin to educate them in the basic terms of budgets, expenses and other general financial terms. Introducing these general topics now allows for a strong foundation for future, more in-depth lessons at the middle and high school level.
Money Math: Lessons for LIfe is a program sponsored by Citigroup Foundation, the Department of the Treasury, the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy and the University of Missouri at St. Louis. I chose their Spreading the Budget lesson to do with my 5th grade CREATE students because I found the mixture of general budget concepts and spreadsheet skills to be fantastic. The students get a great financial foundation plus they become adept at spreadsheets.
Spreading the Budget features a hypothetical story about Janna, a college sophomore, and her budget woes. Her parents encourage her to create a budget in a spreadsheet so they can help her identify all her income and expense items. Over the course of 4 scenarios that build upon each other, Janna’s parents help her understand her income sources, gross vs. net income, her taxes, her expenses (fixed, variable and periodic) and decide whether she has enough money (surplus) or not (deficit) to rent the apartment with her college friends. The last step of the exercise is my favorite. The students are asked to solve Janna’s budget woes - what would THEY do to reduce her expenses to help her have a surplus again.
Students begin with a blank spreadsheet and gradually, over the 4-6 weeks, build Janna’s spreadsheet. They learn formatting and how to build formulas to calculate the amounts in the budget. One of the hardest things for them to do is NOT to do the math in their heads but to tell the spreadsheet HOW to calculate what they want. Asa math teacher, I’m very happy they know what the answer should be because they can check whether the formula they entered is correct.
By spending all the time putting in formulas for sub-totals and grand totals, the students can adjust the detail line items and watch as their changes flow automatically through to the last line in the budget - the surplus or deficit. They can decide for themselves what they’d tell Janna to change - maybe cut down on her dining out, trim her gasoline expenses. I love to watch their faces light up when they see how their changes are automatically reflected in the bottom line.
Ask your student to show you their spreadsheet and explain some of the formulas they used. I provide the 4 Activities (Scenarios) that we use in class to the students both in paper copy and posted to our classroom. They also get a finished spreadsheet to use at each stage to verify that their work is correct.
At the end of the cycle, I will have the students build their own worksheets and budgets. Perhaps they are saving for a big purchase. Based on what they've learned about Janna, they can make a framework with some basic budget information and use this as a springboard for future plans and discussions with you!
We will also use VISA's Practical Money Skills website which has numerous games to play that also reinforce the topics we covered. One of my favorites is Money Metropolis which allows the students to travel around a fictitious town and visit stores where they can spend money, and also work, to earn the money they want to spend.
Happy Budgeting!
Money Math: Lessons for LIfe is a program sponsored by Citigroup Foundation, the Department of the Treasury, the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy and the University of Missouri at St. Louis. I chose their Spreading the Budget lesson to do with my 5th grade CREATE students because I found the mixture of general budget concepts and spreadsheet skills to be fantastic. The students get a great financial foundation plus they become adept at spreadsheets.
Spreading the Budget features a hypothetical story about Janna, a college sophomore, and her budget woes. Her parents encourage her to create a budget in a spreadsheet so they can help her identify all her income and expense items. Over the course of 4 scenarios that build upon each other, Janna’s parents help her understand her income sources, gross vs. net income, her taxes, her expenses (fixed, variable and periodic) and decide whether she has enough money (surplus) or not (deficit) to rent the apartment with her college friends. The last step of the exercise is my favorite. The students are asked to solve Janna’s budget woes - what would THEY do to reduce her expenses to help her have a surplus again.
Students begin with a blank spreadsheet and gradually, over the 4-6 weeks, build Janna’s spreadsheet. They learn formatting and how to build formulas to calculate the amounts in the budget. One of the hardest things for them to do is NOT to do the math in their heads but to tell the spreadsheet HOW to calculate what they want. Asa math teacher, I’m very happy they know what the answer should be because they can check whether the formula they entered is correct.
By spending all the time putting in formulas for sub-totals and grand totals, the students can adjust the detail line items and watch as their changes flow automatically through to the last line in the budget - the surplus or deficit. They can decide for themselves what they’d tell Janna to change - maybe cut down on her dining out, trim her gasoline expenses. I love to watch their faces light up when they see how their changes are automatically reflected in the bottom line.
Ask your student to show you their spreadsheet and explain some of the formulas they used. I provide the 4 Activities (Scenarios) that we use in class to the students both in paper copy and posted to our classroom. They also get a finished spreadsheet to use at each stage to verify that their work is correct.
At the end of the cycle, I will have the students build their own worksheets and budgets. Perhaps they are saving for a big purchase. Based on what they've learned about Janna, they can make a framework with some basic budget information and use this as a springboard for future plans and discussions with you!
We will also use VISA's Practical Money Skills website which has numerous games to play that also reinforce the topics we covered. One of my favorites is Money Metropolis which allows the students to travel around a fictitious town and visit stores where they can spend money, and also work, to earn the money they want to spend.
Happy Budgeting!
Cycle 2 - March MATHness
The 5th grade has a lot of fun during March MATHness - our month long celebration of all things mathematical. They design their own puzzles and brain teasers, after we explore some of our own and try to design puzzles. Each week, a different puzzle will be featured as our weekly contest question which we share with the entire school via our March MATHness webpage, that can be found on the Student Technology Playbook. They also find fun daily math fun facts to share with the school over the loudspeaker at the end of the day. We like to share fun things about math and hope that all students enjoy them.
Cycle 3 - Math Marvels
During our last cycle, we explore some advanced math topics and how they connect to nature and the real world. It's great to amaze students with just how marvelous math is and its beauty in our everyday world. I like to pique their interest so they are eager to continue to study math in the future. They may even be inspired to identify a future course of study or a career.