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Conversation with the Chairman: A Teacher Town Hall Meeting

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Conversation with the Chairman: A Teacher Town Hall Meeting

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Video of Jerome Powell Fed Chairman holding town-hall meeting with teachers. Much of the video is above the level of 4th graders, but segments of the video can be used to show how the Federal Reserve supports and manage the U.S. Dollar.

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Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

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Conversation with the Chairman: A Teacher Town Hall Meeting

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The book covers the history of money from around the world. Uses Primary source artifacts. Goes all the way up to modern electronic currency.

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This is a good fount of information for elementary students about how money has changed the world. The author examines monetary systems barter economies and the introduction of currency, the coining process, the federal reserve banking system, and modern banking system. Book gives time lines and is excellent research source.

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The book goes in to how general stores played key role in the U.S. economy as it expanded west. How general stores were a transition between bartering to a currency trade. The book has plenty of historical artifacts for students to examine.

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The Global Economy: America and the World
By Anne Ross Roome , Hugh Roome

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The Global Economy: America and the World
By Anne Ross Roome , Hugh Roome

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The book investigates the United States role in a world economy. Gives students insight in to the pros and cons of a growing world economy. Gives students plenty of primary source artifacts. Students can even see what a McDonalds in Hong Kong looks like.

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Growing Money: A Complete Investing Guide for Kids
By Stephen Lewis , Gail Karlitz

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Growing Money: A Complete Investing Guide for Kids
By Stephen Lewis , Gail Karlitz

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The book gives young students an introductory look in the financial institution used to grow money. The book covers savings accounts, bonds, stocks, mutual funds. The book even goes in to high, medium, and low risk investing strategies.

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Making Money for Kids: Simple Tips for Making and Saving Money
By Steven Otfinoski

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Making Money for Kids: Simple Tips for Making and Saving Money
By Steven Otfinoski

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This book layouts ways young students can become savvy savers to grow wealth and save money for something special.  Teaches students how to follow the stock market, avoiding rip-offs, and donating to charities. Very kid friendly book for students to learn about U.S. financial markets and ho they work.

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Money Sense for Kids 
by Hollis Page Harman

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Money Sense for Kids 
by Hollis Page Harman

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This book gives a wide-ranging guide for elementary grade students the history of U.S. currency. Has plenty of primary source artifacts showing the history of U.S. paper and coins money. Gives students insight on how to invest in stocks and bonds and other ways to earn money.

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How to Turn $100 into $1,000,000: Earn! Save! Invest!
by James McKenna, Jeannine Glista

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How to Turn $100 into $1,000,000: Earn! Save! Invest!
by James McKenna, Jeannine Glista

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The book is an inclusive guide for Students to learn the basics of earning, saving, spending, and investing money. Helps students develop financial literacy and good decision-making skills about money. The author engages elementary readers making difficult concepts easy to understand.

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The History of Money: From Bartering to Banking 
by Martin Jenkins, Satoshi Kitamura 

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The History of Money: From Bartering to Banking 
by Martin Jenkins, Satoshi Kitamura 

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The book examines many of the artifacts that have been used for money and trade throughout history. Exploring the why and when money was invented. The book is a fun and well suited for young readers.

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If You Made a Million
By Steven Kellogg , David M. Schwartz

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If You Made a Million
By Steven Kellogg , David M. Schwartz

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Marvelosissimo the Mathematical Magician helps young readers explore ways to earn money, invest it, and accrue interest. the books notes give more realistic examples beyond babysitting orcs.

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Patricia Polacco explores concepts of savings, charity, and bartering. Excellent read aloud book with cultural diversity themes.

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The love to Know web sight provides resources and activities for teacher to use in their classroom at any grade level.

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Since the term "economics" encompasses so many things, you'll have to decide what aspects of economics for kids are appealing to your children and what concepts they are able to grasp. Even the youngest child can understand supply and demand when the theory is attributed to something they are familiar with like cookies.

Basic Economics Explained

Economics is defined as the social science of making, distributing, selling, and purchasing goods. Before you can begin teaching important economics lessons to kids, you need to understand what topics are included in this broad definition. These topics can be your starting point in lesson planning.

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Definition of Economics Kids Can Understand

To help kids understand this broad topic, start by asking them to choose any object within their reach at the moment such as a pencil or crayon. Then, explain that economics covers how people:

Make that object, including what materials are needed and where to find them

Get the object to stores once they're made

Decide how much the object should cost and find people who will want to buy it

Get money to buy the object and decide they want to buy it

Economics for Kids as a Social Science

Economics is not a mathematical science; it's a social science that is often included in social studies lessons for younger kids. It's more about the people involved from manufacturers to sellers to buyers than computing numbers. The trick is to keep everything simple and to keep it relatable to the kids you're teaching. Kids will grasp economic theories more easily when the subject is presented in an easy way and discussed using examples they see in their everyday lives.

Introduction to Money

Money is what people in most countries use to buy things. They essentially trade their money for the goods they want. When introducing the concept of money, use the currency your kids are most likely to use in real life. You can also cover:

Types of money - What do they look like and how much are they worth?

Banking - What do banks have to do with money?

Checks and credit cards - How do they also represent money?

Making money - Who makes bills and coins and how they decide the value of each?

Supply and Demand

Economics studies the relationship between people and the goods they buy and sell. Supply is the amount of a certain item that is available and made right now. Demand is how many people want the item. In general, there are a few simple rules kids can understand about supply and demand.

When something is in demand, it means lots of people want it.

As demand increases or more people want the goods, production increases, or in simpler terms companies need to make more.

When something is not in demand, production halts or slows meaning companies make less of it.

Want Versus Need

The concept of wants versus needs can be challenging for kids because their developmental level has a focus on instant gratification. Needs are things you can't be alive without such as water, food, and shelter. Wants are the things kids like to have or wish they had, but aren't really needed to be alive.

In every aspect of economics from manufacturing to buying, people have to make choices between two or more things or options.

These choices can also be called "trade-offs" because you often have to give up one thing to get another.

Scarcity, or the low availability of a good, is a factor in determining economic choices.

Economics Lesson Ideas for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Toddlers and preschoolers can begin to learn about the very basic economic principles through role-playing and guided discussions. At this age, you don't need to worry so much about using proper terminology, but rather focus on demonstrating and illustrating the concepts.

Shop for Pretend

Use toy foods, printable play money, and a toy cash register to set up a pretend store at home or in the classroom.

1. Kids can help stock the shelves, be the cashier, or play the role of shopper.

2. Use small pieces of paper to write out prices for each item.

3. As you make purchases or act as the cashier, ask questions about why they picked certain items or if they thought items were too expensive.

Set Up a Mini Manufacturing Plant

Little kids don't really get the chance to look inside a factory except when they see one in a movie or video.

1. Collect boxes and other recyclables to use as packing materials.

2. Set up a production line where you inspect a toy or pantry item then pass it down the line for your child to pack in a box.

3. If you have a small wagon, they can load the packed boxes in a wagon and "deliver" them to the store.

4. You can do the same activity with produce by picking toy fruits and vegetables at your "farm" then delivering them to a market.

Make Your Own Money

If you use a chore chart for kids, you can create your own currency to use along with it.

1. Use paper and markers to make bills and cutout cardboard circles for coins if you want them.

2. Assign a value to each type of money.

3. When you write chores on the chore chart, assign each a payment value.

4. As your kids complete chores, you can pay them with their fake money.

5. Keep a couple small boxes of prize items that cost different amounts where your kids can "shop" using the fake money.

Economics Lesson Ideas for Lower Elementary Students

Elementary school aged kids are ready for more involved economics lessons, but still have shorter attention spans. Capture their attention with multimedia presentations of your topics mixed with hands-on activities that don't take too long to complete.

Shortage and Surplus Scavenger Hunt

Whether you're working in a classroom or at home, this simple scavenger hunt can be used several times throughout the year with different items.

1. Choose a few different items that you have a lot of such as crayons, books, or tissues.

2. Remove more than half of one or two of these items and add a bunch of extras to the other categories. For example, leave only five crayons in the 64-pack box and take all the tissues from one box and add them to another full box. This will give you a shortage of some items and a surplus of others.

3. Give kids some free time to explore the room in an effort to discover what items have a surplus and which are low in stock.

Want Versus Need School Supply Challenge

Illustrate the concepts of wants versus needs and working together as a community with this simple daily group economics activity.

1. Assign a worksheet, color-by-number page, or other individual activity.

2. Supply exactly enough of the materials each student needs to complete that activity in one large pile.

3. Randomly assign some kids as "wants" and others as "needs."

4. Instruct the "wants" to take all the supplies they want when they are called on to gather the supplies. Instruct the "needs" to take only the items they need when it is their turn.

5. Once all the supplies are gone, discuss why there were or weren't enough.

Holiday Snack Barter Buffet

The next time your class has a holiday party, use all the snacks kids bring in to share as part of your buffet to teach bartering.

1. Set out all the snack options on one long table.

2. Randomly give each child about three to five of the snacks; it's best if all the snacks are individually wrapped.

3. Separate the group into a few smaller groups of two to four kids.

4. Each small group gets one turn to stand behind the buffet table and accept trades for their snack from the rest of the class. For example, if Caleb gets gummy snacks, a pack of cookies, and a pack of pretzels he might offer to trade his pretzels and cookies for a pack of mini muffins.

5. After everyone has had a chance to barter for the treats they want, discuss the activity.

Economics Lesson Ideas for Upper Elementary Children

Older kids are ready for more advanced economic theories and may actually start an economics curriculum. Kids in this age group are able to handle field trips, reading books about economic concepts, and experimenting with different economic topics through projects.

Bank Account Comparisons

Gather informational flyers or brochures from a variety of local banks and credit unions on the same type of account such as a standard savings account. Kids can take notes or create charts based on each bank's offer to decide which they would choose to use. Ask them to give a brief presentation about how they came to this conclusion.

Money Board Game Tournament

There are tons of board games that include money and other economics lessons. Choose one game and get multiple copies or have each small group play a different game in your tournament. Either way you'll need to create a tournament bracket and assign kids to small groups with a game assigned to each. These games can take hours to play, so you may have to run the tournament over several days. Once you have an ultimate winner, discuss how they were able to win. Consider the variables that could have contributed to winning or losing such as luck, choices, and competitors. Games to try include:

Monopoly

The Game of Life

Payday

Easy Money

Shopping Field Trip

Take a trip to the grocery store, mall, or any other place where you might purchase goods. As you shop, bring up questions to your children that might help spark a real interest in economic theories. Ask the questions and prompt your children to answer based on what they know so far about economics. Thought-provoking questions include:

Which items caught your attention right away and why?

Why do you think people like sales?

Why do some people carry calculators when they shop?

Why do you think the mall is busier near payday?

Why do you think that store advertises some products as "limited quantities available?"

Economics All Around

Kids of various ages will respond well to age-appropriate tactics for learning basic economics. You can go beyond role playing and educational materials regarding economics for kids by using your own spending and earning as examples. Older children may have the capacity to understand the intricacies about the family economic situation, but even younger children can be taught about economics when you turn everyday situations into learning opportunities.

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Economics Lesson Ideas for Kids | LoveToKnow

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Since the term "economics" encompasses so many things, you'll have to decide what aspects of economics for kids are appealing to your children and what concepts they are able to grasp. Even the youngest child can understand supply and demand when the theory is attributed to something they are familiar with like cookies.

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This lesson plan retrieved from the Federal reserve Bank of Kansas City provides teachers with materials and activities to teach the four basic characteristics  of money.

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Home > Economic Education > Early Forms of Money Lesson

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This video by InkwellMedia gives students a quick introduction of what is money and its origins from the bartering system. The video list 5 characteristics of money, and would not be susceptible if using a lesson plan that only list 4 characteristics of money.

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The video give an over view on how coins are designed and made. mixes live action footage with animation. makes an government connection with how coins are approved by law.

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The video shows how paper money is designed and made. Uses all live action footage and interviews with some of the artiest who design the bills. the video would be useful when for make an art connection.

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College is one of the first large expenses young people face. This website gives a break down of the cost and expenses of collage, and can be used to help students learn to plan and save for large expenses to avoid debt

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MakingCents by Navy Federal Credit Union

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Learn how to pay for your college education, how private student loans differ from Federal loans, how loan consolidation works and more.

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A Look at the Shocking Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2019

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A Look at the Shocking Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2019

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The web page gives a research supported of breakdown of the burden of student dept. It also shows a individuals average monthly payment  on their student loans. students can use this information to investigate the financial burden of student loans

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A Look at the Shocking Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2021

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It’s 2021, and Americans are as burdened by student loan debt as ever. Here’s a deep dive into the often shocking U.S. student loan debt statistics.

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A Look at the Shocking Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2021

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The entente of this book is beyond the reading level of 4th graders, but it does give summaries of the various savings vehicles and college funding options available. those parts can be used to help students research ways to pay for collage.