• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

February 17, 2017 Elementary School

Teaching Money Concepts To Young Students

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Paula Kay Glass

Paula has a Masters degree in education with an emphasis on child development and child behavior. She has been an educator for 22 years. She founded a private elementary school in 2003 and is now working through the Moore Public School District in Moore, Oklahoma as a special education teacher. Paula is also a contributing writer to The Huffington Post and has a children's book published. Paula has three grown children and resides in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. You can contact her at glass foundations@sbcglobal.net or paulaglass@moorepublicschools.com.
  • Staying Within Law: Special Education Teachers and IDEA - September 1, 2020
  • Teaching With Minecraft EDU - April 3, 2019
  • Self-Care Is Priority One for This Teacher - February 13, 2019
  • Preparing Students For Teacher Absences - February 12, 2019
  • Respect in the Classroom: Earned, Not Expected - February 11, 2019
  • Dissing the Family Crazies: A Christmas Story - January 6, 2019
  • Band-Aiding The Mental Health of Our Children - November 23, 2018
  • We Must Love Them - November 5, 2018
  • Take One For the Team: The Need for Self-Care - August 19, 2018
  • The New Teacher Smell - August 19, 2018

The past few years I have become so much more conscientious about not only teaching basic money skills to my second graders, but also teaching the concept of money and saving. I have noticed that these concepts don’t seem to be taught much at home anymore. Sure it’s easy for me to implement a token system in my classroom, but what used to work beautifully for learning how to manage ‘money’ just doesn’t seem to drive home what I’m trying to get across as far as earning, saving, spending and so forth any longer. When I started my search for an economics curriculum I found that most information was geared toward middle school and high school students.

Enter, Playdoh Economics: Motivating Activities for Teaching Economics to Elementary and Middle School Students, by Harlan R. Day.

AMAZING!

This curriculum, made up of 15 lessons, teaches concepts like goods and services, production, scarcity, consumers, producers, trade, money, specialization, capital, saving and investing, market price, costs and profits, inflation and Gross National Product, with two tests included. It teaches these concepts with not only actual lessons, but with hands-on instruction for the students to demonstrate their learning. And the best part? It uses Playdoh to teach them! The kids LOVE this method of learning. I love everything about this curriculum, especially that you don’t necessarily have to teach the lessons in order for them to make sense. You can use the lessons as stand-alones to supplement curriculum you are using.

Kids LOVE learning about money with Play Doh! Click To Tweet

I also love that it teaches across such a broad spectrum of learners. I’ve used this material with elementary and middle school students. The lessons are written in language that is easily explained to your younger learners, and you are able to give examples of the vocabulary based on the age group you are teaching. For example, if you were teaching the concept of goods to your younger learners, you would use examples such as the toys the kids were interested in at the time, or even the school supplies they are using. Examples would be changed up a bit for your middle schoolers to the current electronics or whatever else they may be interested in currently. The definitions and stories in the curriculum are applicable across the board.

In addition, it's not a tightly-structured curriculum. You can teach one lesson each day or you can spread the lessons out to once a week. It is very easy to pick up from where you left off and the kids seem to follow along without any difficulty.

I’ve added all kinds of supplemental, hands-on activities of my own while teaching these lessons, from a pretend classroom grocery store, to a treasure box that the kids can make purchases from when they’ve earned enough classroom money, to games on my smartboard. The curriculum is flexible enough to allow for a variety of additional activities, but it also can stand alone using the activities that it includes.

How do you teach economics in your classroom?

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailBridging the Summer Gap Default ThumbnailEngaging Parents From School To Home Default ThumbnailHands-On Science For Young Learners Default ThumbnailMaking Time and Money Concepts Stick
« Using Literature to Teach Math: Five Great Books to Use in Middle School
Traveling Teacher: National Museum of African American History and Culture »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • "Let's Make This Happen": Following Student Interests to Interest-Based Mentorships
  • Want to Keep Special Education Teachers? Try Mentorship
  • An Idaho teen who won his school board election has a message for educators
  • Moving Beyond Diversity to Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging: Lessons from a Sunday Sermon

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.