Link to Ontario Language & Media Literacy Curriculum:

• 1.2 – identify a variety of purposes for reading and choose reading materials appropriate for those purposes
• 1.6 – extend understanding of texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them
• 3.1 – automatically read and understand most words in a wide range of reading contexts
• 3.2 – predict the meaning of and rapidly solve unfamiliar words using different types of cues

Brief Overview of the Lesson:

The activity involves reading and completing an Internet brochure called “A Kids Guide to Money.” The students will complete a sample budget worksheet. They will learn about several money topics: earning, spending, saving, needs and wants.

Estimated Time Required for Implementation:

One class period

Materials Needed:

Computers

Suggested Implementation Strategy:

• Ask the students what they know about money concepts. Do they know what “opportunity cost” means?
• Tell the students that today they will learn what opportunity cost is and learn about several other money concepts.
• Tell them to open the following website and instruct them to read this brochure and complete the activities.
  https://www.clevelandfed.org/learning-center-and-money-museum/onlineactivities/great-minds-think.aspx

Options for Consideration:

• The teacher may want to put the students in groups to do this activity.
• If computers are not available, a smart board could be used to make this a whole class activity.

Extended Learning Opportunities:

• Let the students learn more about money and how an economy works by watching the “Hands on Banking” program for teens at:
  http://www.handsonbanking.org/htdocs/en/t/#/en/t/ym/3.html

Articles:

• http://learningtogive.org/lessons/unit398/
  A unit containing 4 lessons called “Money Smart Teens”