EconEdLink

The Story of Jack and the Bank Stalk

Fairy tales have always been used to give lessons about life. The story of Jack and the Bean Stalk is a good lesson about the importance of knowing about money and banks. The story of Jack asks the question, "What is money?"

The Little Red Hen

The Little Red Hen is a classic story for nearly all adults, and many children. Here it is retold and enhanced in order to provide a framework for illustrating and reviewing the concepts of productive resources and incentives. After reading the story, students will categorize resources into land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship and be able to identify what future incentives the dog, the cat and the mouse will have to help the little hen in her work. Students will have the opportunity to explore bread making.

The ABCs of Saving

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.

Playful Economics

Designed primarily for elementary and middle school students, each of the 15 lessons in this guide introduces an economics concept through activities with modeling clay.

12 out of 17 lessons from this publication relate to this EconEdLink lesson.

Financial Fitness for Life: K-2 - Teacher Guide

This publication contains 16 stories that complement the K-2 Student Storybook. Specific to grades K-2 are a variety of activities, including making coins out of salt dough or cookie dough; a song that teaches students about opportunity cost and decisions; and a game in which students learn the importance of savings.

6 out of 18 lessons from this publication relate to this EconEdLink lesson.