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The ABCs of Saving
Source: Council for Economic Education (EconEdLink) | Type: Lesson
We save money to get things we can’t afford to buy now. Saving for the future requires patience but it can be worth it when we get what we want the most. Successful savings depends on three elements which are presented to students as the ABCs of saving. A is for Aim: setting a goal. B is for Bank: creating a place to put savings. C is for Coins and currency: making saving money a habit. Students participate in an activity in which they must distinquish between short-term and long-term goals. In a second activity, they discover that when they decide to save for a future goal, they are giving up the opportunity to buy something now. What they give up is their opportunity cost—the thing they wanted second most. The well-known fable about The Grasshopper and the Ants helps illustrate this point. Big Banks, Little Banks (http://???) can be used as a follow-up lesson introducing students to the advantages and disadvantages of different savings places.
- Money Management
- Opportunity Cost
- Trade-offs among Goals
- Economics 1: Scarcity
- Economics 10: Role of Economic Institutions
This lesson is great for kids to realize the value of a dollar and they can save to get what they really want. This activity gives other lessons for you to continue on through after you are done with this one!
This is a great lesson to teach young students and children about the value of saving money and how to do so.
This lesson can be taught to children at a young age! great to start children learning economics early on!
These economics lessons have really made a dry subject (economics) exciting for my 4th grade students.
I enjoyed reading this.
Great lesson for the intensive program for ESL students.
I feel that this lesson can be very exciting for young children. Again, I like all of the interactive websites integrated into the lesson and the creative ideas. Some of the reading material is more difficult so younger children may need to read in groups or with partners. I like how the lesson incorporated the story of The Ant and the Grasshopper! It then proceeded to included follow-up assessment questions. One suggestion that I thought of while reading this lesson is to have the students create a T-graph labeling one side "long term goals" and the other side "short-term goals." The students will then need to think of several examples of each type of goal as they complete the chart. I feel that this would be more concrete for the students and give them a resource to refer back to at a later time. Overall, I like this lesson and would use it in the classroom.
I am studying for my MS in Education; I have a 5.5 yr old daughter and this is actually perfect for her and what I've been trying to teach her about money and responsibility, and this will be great for my course study. Thank you!