Teaching Kids About Money Activity

How to Think About Money: Lesson 1

Needs:

1.       Monopoly Money $1 bills- at least $30

2.       Lemons

3.       Sugar

4.       Bottle of water

5.       Grocery bag

6.       Piggy Bank

7.       Napkins

8.       Lemonade Stand Signs (2)

9.       Tape

10.   Paper

11.   Marker

12.   25 Small Cups

13.   2 gallons of lemonade

Preparation:

  1.        Set up 2 tables as lemonade stands

a.       Tape signs to table

b.      Pour glasses of lemonade and put half on each table

2.       Set up grocery store

a.       Put out ingredients

b.      Put out price tags

3.       Put out $1 bills at each student’s seat

Exercise/Lesson:

Today we are going to talk about how money works.  First let’s talk about what money is.

1.       What is money?

2.       What do you use money for?

3.       How do you get money?

a.       Gift  -- only get sometimes, like for birthdays

b.      Job/work – if you are not there doing the work – you don’t make the money

c.       Assets  -- They make you money even when you are not there

Today we are going to walk through an exercise to give you an example of how money works and why you would want an asset.

I am going to have someone help me out (select a student). 

(The student you selected) gets $5 for his birthday.

What are some things he/she can do with the $5?

1.       Buy a toy

2.       Save

3.       Buy an asset

If he/she buys a toy the money is gone forever

If he/she saves the money, he/she has it forever but doesn’t get a toy

Let’s see what happens if he/she uses the money to buy an asset.

DEFINITION—Assets put money in your pocket even when you are not there.

For today’s asset (Name of Student Selected) is going to start a Lemonade Stand Company

1.     First he/she will need to take the $5 from their birthday and buy what is needed to make the lemonade.

2.     Then he will need to make the lemonade to take to the stands

3.     Remember the definition of assets – it puts money in your pocket even when you are not there. So the student will need to hire 2 employees to work at their lemonade stands so that he/she can sell lemonade without being there.

4.     Each of you has $1 at your desk so you can each buy a class of lemonade.  (send the students to the Lemonade stands to buy lemonade.)

5.    We have sold out of lemonade so it is time to close the stands. 

a.       Sam needs to collect all the money from each stand

b.      And pay each employee $3.

6.       Now he will count how much money he has left.

a.       He will take out $5 of it to replace the birthday money he used to buy groceries

b.      Then he has $X left over. 

c.       With that he can buy a toy plus have money to buy more assets.

Review:

Now let’s review what we have learned.

1.       Go over 3 options drawn on the board

2.       Who can tell me the definition of an asset?

3.       Can anyone think of other examples?

4.       Does anyone have any assets?

5.       What happens to money if you spend it on assets?  It keeps making you more money.  That is how you make money work for YOU!

6.      Questions or Thoughts to share about assets or how money works?

To learn more about teaching kids how money works visit FinanciallySavvyKids.com