An Introductory Talk With the Class

Prior to Talk With Our Kids About Money Day, you might want to have a general talk with the class about the upcoming day, explain to them what it is, and make them aware of what the day is for and what it hopes to accomplish. The Handout in Appendix A is provided for you if you wish to use this with your students.

Getting Some Student Feedback and Ideas

In setting the stage for the Day, you might want to seek some feedback and ideas from students as to what they might like to talk about or learn about on Talk With Our Kids About Money Day. This will help you align the Day with what is of interest to your students. The Handout in Appendix B is provided to support you if you want to seek some input and feedback from your students.

A Favourite Book, Movie, TV Show, Video or Board Game, Website, or App About Money

In advance of the Day, you might want to ask your students to think about, and identify, a movie, TV show, video game, website, app, or book that deals with money. You can ask them what the key message is that they got from watching the movie or TV show, using the app, visiting the website, playing the game, or from the book they read. If you collect these in advance, you could take time on the Day to discuss some of the “lessons” that could be learned from the experiences that the students have had.

A Note Home: Engaging Families

It would be a good idea, if you can and if you wish, to try and engage the “home” with the Day’s program. Encouraging families to talk with their kids about money and activities at school can be a catalyst for this. Teachers are usually very sensitive to the home situations of students and how to avoid students feeling awkward or embarrassed. But there are many chats that can be had at home that don’t have to deal with how much money people have, who has more money than others, etc.—the kind of topics that can be awkward for parents/guardians.

As we said, you know your students and their situation best—and how best to handle any links to the home. But, if you can, we think it will be valuable to get “Mom” and “Dad” or “Uncle” or “Aunt” or Grandma” or “Grandpa” … involved in talking with their kids about money. The list of topics previously provided includes many that could be discussed regardless of an individual’s or family’s financial status or situation. Even as simple as helping their children with the exercise above—identifying a movie, TV show, book, website, game, etc. that deals with money—and the lesson one could learn—is one that all families could help with and not feel any discomfort about the topic.

In the end, one of the goals is to help break down barriers that stand in the way of families talking with kids about money—and helping kids learn before making mistakes—even if we can help them learn from the mistakes that we made.

If you can reach out and engage families in the Day, we think this would be some real value- added from the program. In the Appendix there is a sample letter home if you would like to use it—and feel free to change/adapt it.

Getting the Community Involved

For your activity for the Day, you might want to invite in a guest speaker—or more than one guest from the community to meet and talk with the class. The options for this are many and will depend on the community, your interest, the interest of your students, and the availability of “guests.”

Examples could include:

• Someone from a local financial institution could come in to talk about how banks work, the services they offer, the kinds of bank accounts there are, etc.;
• An employer who could talk about what they look for in their employees, how workers are paid and earn income, what’s in a paycheque, deductions from a paycheque, benefits that workers can receive, etc.;
• Someone from a retail store could come in to talk about how prices are set, why they change, and how stores use credit and debit cards;
• Someone could come in from a local agency that works with people who are in need and how people help—and can help;
• Someone could come in from the local government offices to talk about taxes and what is done in the community with the tax dollars that they receive;
• Someone from a local college or university could come in to talk about the costs of future education;
• Someone from Junior Achievement or another similar organization could come in to take about basic budgeting and the costs of running a household;
• Someone from a local financial institution could come in and talk about the ways in which money can be saved, the concept of interest, and how compound interest works.There are all kinds of possibilities—and, as before, you will now choose the best in terms of your students’ interest and the resources available in the community. Having one or more guests invited to the classroom on the Day could be one activity to consider. If you do, it may be helpful to share with students the guest or guests who will be coming in and ask them to prepare questions they would like to have answered. Sharing such questions with the guest(s) can help them fit their comments to what is of interest to the students.The Appendix includes a sample letter of invitation that could be used to invite a guest to the class for the Day.

Money in the News

Another way to prepare students for the Day, and get them engaged, would be to have them monitor the “news,” in all its forms these days, for a few days or a week in advance of the Day, to watch for stories about money. You could have students pin to a board in the class each day stories that they have seen or heard about. They could post newspaper stories or simply a line or paragraph on a card describing what they heard. You could ask them to include one question on each posting asking something they would like to know about. This could build up to a “collage” and, if you like, you could use the collage to prepare for the Day and talk with students about some of the stories or items they heard about and posted in the collage—drawing on their questions to help guide the discussion.

A “Money in Your Life” Log

Another possible idea or way to prepare for the day is to ask each student to keep a log for one day, a few days, or a week of all the times, instances, or circumstances, that they encounter with money—a subway ride, buying gum at a store, shopping for groceries with parents, going to the bank or an ATM, buying an app or something from i-tunes, and so on. On the Day, or on some other occasion, draw upon the students’ experiences to make a list of all the ways in which money enters into people’s daily lives. You can then draw upon these experiences to seek questions from students about their “money encounters” or you can pose a series of questions to them to provoke discussion.

How Can We Help?

One thing many students are interested in is how to help those who are in need. Students often have a desire to learn more about why some people are homeless, struggle to feed their families and use food banks, etc. This can be a more challenging area for teachers to venture into with their students in terms of talking with students about money—but they are often interested and the questions they often have are important ones to discuss. It won’t be the choice of all teachers, but one option, in preparing for the Day, could be to ask students to think about those in their community who are in need—and to learn more about how people are able to help others if they can—and challenge students to think of ways that people could help others in need—perhaps ways that have never been thought of before. Talking with students about how they could help others can help set the stage for things they may do later in life when they may have the opportunity for time, money, effort, and ideas to help others in need of help. This topic can also include looking into, and discussing, how governments try to help those in need of assistance.

Money Meets the Environment

Another possible activity would be to ask students, in advance of the day, to think about, observe, and note ways in which money decisions can hurt or harm the environment—and how they can help improve or sustain the environment. Many of the money decisions and actions we undertake can have an environmental consequence—positive or negative. The Day can provide an opportunity to get students thinking about this—and to think about how they can make decisions, and undertake actions, that can have a positive, rather than a negative, effect.