For my final project, I adapted my lesson from the Kindergarten lesson from the FITC website called
Making Spending Decisions. Because I am not an active teacher, I taught this lesson to my five-year-old and three-year-old. I chose this activity because I felt like it was something that would interest them (my five-year-old has really been into saving coins in his piggy bank the last few months) and a concept that my five-year-old could grasp.
First, we talked about money. I told them the names and values of a penny, nickle, dime, and quarter. (Some of this was review for my five-year-old)
Then I gave kids 50 cents each (a quarter, dime, nickel, and ten pennies) and told them that they were going to buy their snacks. They got to take turns purchasing a snack until they ran out of money.
(Please excuse my three-year-old's lack of shirt and manners!)
The next day, I took them to the dollar store and gave them each two dollars to choose 2 items.
I felt like the lesson was successful because they learned while having fun. If I could teach the lesson again, I would have tweaked it to have a follow-up activity or assessment to enforce the lesson they learned. I think my kids would have loved to do a coin and value matching game afterward and I am planning on making one for them.
