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How much money can you earn?
Rationale: Learning to manage money is an important real-life skill. 5th graders will participate in a year-long economics experience with play money and checkbooks. On a daily basis, they will have the opportunity to earn or lose money. Students will analyze the greatest possible amount they can earn by the end of the school year. Money earned by the end of the school year is used to purchase real items from a school auction.
This activity will provide students with many economic, math, and presentation skills: adding and subtracting money, paying bills, money management, reading a long-term calendar, making choices about dates, displaying information, and sharing information.
Objectives:
- To analyze economic decisions involving money
- Use a calculator appropriately
- Interpret and display information in an appropriate way
- To justify solutions with evidence and reasoning
- To work with long-range calendar planning
- Express ideas clearly
- Use oral presentation skills (volume, intonation, gestures, and eye contact)
- To understand how paychecks and bills influence a worker (PP goal)
- To understand the importance of schedules and deadlines (PP goal)
- To understand the importance of math in the workplace (PP goal)
Activity Description:
Students will be provided information about how the 5th grade economic money management system works. They will receive a copy of a checkbook weekly record, which shows how they may earn or lose money. (Samples of both these documents will be available on-line.) They will also receive a copy of the school calendar, which shows school holidays. Students will be given the beginning date to earn money and the ending date, when all students will determine their final balance. Students will also view a video from the previous year, showing the 5th grade auction, where students spend their fake money.
Students will then be asked to determine the greatest amount of money they can possible earn by the end of the school year. Students will be encouraged to use the calendar to figure out what days to count and what days to not count, to add on reading bonuses, to subtract cost of bills, and other factors which would influence the final balance. Students will also be allowed to chose how they work (alone or with a partner). They will be encouraged to talk to other 5th grade students. Teachers will set checkpoints to conference with students and to monitor their progress.
On the final due date of this project, students will present their findings to the class through an oral presentation. A rubric will be available to students and a sample may be downloaded on-line.
Parent information:
5th grade students will be participating in an authentic economics experience that will begin at the beginning of the school year. The purpose is to instill concepts of economics into the daily lives of all 5th grade students. We will begin our economic experience with an activity that should help students understand how the system works and how to earn as much money as they can. Below is a description of the 5th grade economic system, which is necessary to understand before the activity can be fully understood.
Students will start with a balance of $50 in their checking accounts. Money is earned and deducted in several different ways. Each student, at the beginning of each month, will be asked to pay the city $3.50 for utilities. They will also pay their community $12.50 for rent. Citizens receive $5 daily for following through with the normal classroom expectations, which include keeping and organizing their supplies, turning in all assignments on time, being on time for class, doing assigned class jobs, and using appropriate classroom behavior. Student will receive paychecks every two weeks for completing a classroom job. Students may also earn money by participating in the "RAH-RAH" reading incentive plan. Money is debited from the accounts if work is late, is a student is late to class without a note, is school supplies must be rented, if behavior is inappropriate, or if an office visit is required. Students will not be credited or debited for academic achievement.
Each student will manage their own personal checkbooks. No real money will be issued. Students will keep a checklist of each day's credits and/or debits. The checkbooks will be balanced by the students and approved by the teacher on a weekly basis. These weekly checkpoints assure that the student and the teacher agree on the student balance. At the end of the year, 5th grade students will participate in an auction to "purchase" items with their final account balance.
This first activity, "How much money can you earn by the end of the year?" , will help students understand how the money system will work, how their total balance will be influenced by credits and debits, how RAH-RAH bonuses will add to their total balance, how understanding calendar dates will influence their total balance, and how to effectively use a calculator. Students will also be asked to present their information to the rest of the class.
Show Me Standards
Process:
1.4 Use technological tools and other resources to locate, select and organize information
1.8 Organize data, information and ideas into useful forms (including charts, graphs, outlines) for analysis or presentation.
2.1 Plan and make written, oral and visual presentations for a variety of purposes and audiences.
3.3 Develop and apply strategies based on one's own expereince in preventing or solving problems.
3.4 Evaluate the processes used in recognizing and solving problems.
4.1 Explain reasoning and identify information used to support decisions.
Performance:
CA1 Speaking and writing standard English (including grammar, usage, punctuation, spelling capitalization).
CA6 Participating in formal and informal presentations and discussions of issues and ideas.
MA1 Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; other number sense, including numeration and estimation; and the application of these operations and concepts in the workplace and other situations.
SS4 Economic concepts (including productivity and the market system) and principles (including the laws of supply and demand).
SS7 The use of tools of social science inquiry (such as surveys, statistics, maps, documents).
FA1 Process and techniques for the production, exhibition or performance of one or more of the visual or performed arts.
Progress Report
LA Locates information using reference materials
COMM Collecting, Drafting, Revision, Editing, Spelling, Oral Communication
MATH Reads, interprets and displays information in an appropriate way
Demonstrates willingness to try alternative methods to solve problems
Justifies solutions to problems with evidence and reasoning
Uses estimation and mental math strategies to solve problems
Uses a calculator appropriately
Reads, writes and identifies numbers through 9,999,999
Adds whole numbers and decimals
Multiplies 2-digit numbers
SS Analyzes economic decisions
Name__________________________Date_____________Number_____
How Much Can You Earn?
Scoring Guide
4 Student correctly applies the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication and/or division to achieve the prompted purpose. Computation is for the most part error-free, or errors do not interfere with the reasonableness of the response. Findings are clearly identified and/or labeled. Explanations are clear and easy for the reader to follow.
3 Student correctly applies the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication and/or division to achieve the prompted purpose. Computation may contain minor errors, however the process used would achieve a reasonable response. Findings are clearly identified and/or labeled. Explanations are for the most part clear and easy for the reader to follow.
2 Student correctly applies the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and/or division to achieve the prompted purpose, however all necessary computations are not made for a reasonable response. Computation may or may not contain errors. Findings may or may not be clearly identified and/or labeled. Explanations may or may not be clear and easy for the reader to follow.
1 Student may or may not apply the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and/or division to achieve the prompted purpose. Computation may contain significant errors, or several necessary computations were omitted for a reasonable response. Findings may or may not be clearly identified and/or labeled. Explanations may or may not be clear and easy for the reader to follow.
0 No attempt was made, or student does not apply the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and/or division to achieve the prompted purpose.
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