Teaching Economics to Second Graders

Unlike most new teachers, Social Studies is one of my favorite subjects to teach! I love the freedom and real life connections that are oh, so easy to make. Our last big unit of Social Studies was Economics, or as my kids like to call it MONEY! This was such a fun unit and so easy to link into every other subject area. After searching my entire school and scrounging up enough play money for a class set, I assigned each student a baggie full of their own money. This money became their responsibility and life line in our classroom for trips to the water fountain and eating lunch with a friend. I divided the money up into $5.00 increments, some students received a $5.00 bill, others received all change consisting of toonies, loonies, quarters, dimes, nickles and pennies. Their first challenge was to count their money and record it on the class chart. The kids were all pleased to find out they had received the same amount of money, even though everyone's denomination looked a bit different.

The next step was to set up all the students with a Money Sheet. This was just a small square sheet of paper taped to the corner of their desks where they were able to record the money that they earned within the classroom and the money spent within the classroom. Although I wanted the students to be responsible for their earning and spending, it ended up that I was the one who kept track of their money on my own record sheet, and then just copied it onto their desks. The students were still able to see their money tally and never failed to remind me when I owed them money, yet somehow mindlessly forgetting when they spent money! Regardless, the system worked out well!

On the Economics board, students were able to see the cost of items/tasks they could spend their money on, and in return; ways in which they could earn more money. With the students earning and spending their own money, they quickly learned what was worth spending money on and what was not. The most popular purchases were computer time and reading in the hall with a friend.

By the end of the unit, some of my super savers had over $9.00 to spend at a little shop I set up in an empty classroom across the hall. Sadly, some of my more elaborate spenders had spent all of their earnings before it was even time to go shopping. The shop consisted of books, small toys, homemade cookies and coupons all for a very inflated price. The students loved it and I think they really learned the value of saving and earning money.