Teachings kids about money skills is an essential life skill that can help them become financially responsible adults. When children are taught how to earn, save, and spend money early in life, they develop good habits and attitudes toward money. They can learn to be responsible in spending and be able to make thoughtful decisions with every money they have.
If you are a teacher, you can try these activities as you teach your primary students about money.
1. Introduce Money Basics through Pretend Plays
You can start your lesson by teaching children what is money and how it is being used in our daily lives. Examples include grocery shopping and paying bills. You can have a pretend play in class where you can set up your students to go on a grocery shopping game. You can set up a cash register and items for sale in the classroom. Students will be assigned as cashiers, sellers, or buyers. This is one good opportunity for learning through play.
2. Let students familiarize bills and coins through the use of visual aids.
Have students identify bills and coins using pictures, play money and charts, and doing puzzles. Once students are able to familiarize each bill and coin, it is time to teach them how to count money by learning about the value of each bill and coin.
3.Teach them about Budgeting with Budget Planners
Learning how to budget money is one important skill children should learn. It will help them plan how they want to spend their money.
When you teach about budgeting, you can let your students make their own weekly budget by using a budget planner.
4. Teach them How to Save Money with Piggy Bank Crafts
When children are taught about saving in early in life, they develop good habits and attitudes toward money. They can learn to be responsible in spending and be able to make thoughtful decisions with every money they have.
You can make piggy bank crafts or coin bank crafts to introduce lessons on saving.
Once students are done with their piggy banks, you can encourage them to save their allowance or any spare change they received. Ensure that students have a goal as they save.
5. Use Fun and Interactive Online Games
There are a lot of money games for kids that you can use to teach students about money. One of the games I’ve found online is the Cash Back Game, where the player acts as the cashier and is given scenarios on how much change she will give. You can set the game mode to easy, medium, or hard depending on your students’ knowledge about money. You can also opt to show hints or not.
My students have tried this game, and they find it pretty easy. The only thing that puts pressure while they play is the time limit.
The Idle Money Tree Game is also a nice game to teach students about saving and investing. It teaches children that you can make your money grow by doing something with your tree. You have to water it, put fertilizer, do research, and many other things. This means that money doesn’t just grow on trees, but you really have to put in effort and hard work in order for your money to grow.
6. Teach them the importance of Giving with Money Jars
Children do not just have to learn about saving and spending wisely but also about giving. There are many ways children can give, and one of the ways you start in the classroom is by making money jars craft. These money jar crafts are made and students will have to put in their loose coins in order to help those who are in need.
I hope these activities will be a great help to your students. Let me know in the comments your other activities for teaching money skills to children.
