Getting Started:

Ontario Language Arts Curriculum Expectations:

• Listening: 1.2 demonstrate an understanding of appropriate listening behaviour by adapting active listening strategies to suit a wide variety of situations, including work in groups.
• Speaking: 2.3 communicate orally in a clear, coherent manner, using a structure and style appropriate to both the topic and the intended audience.
• Reading: 1.4 demonstrate understanding of increasingly complex texts by summarizing important ideas and citing a variety of details that support the main idea.
• Writing: 1.2 generate ideas about more challenging topics and identify those most appropriate for the purpose.

Learning Goals:

• Students will discover ways to invest money and understand the risks and rewards of each kind of investment.

Readiness:

• Students need to understand the terms: acronyms, investments.

Materials Needed:

• Computers

Learning Activity:

Introduction to Lesson:

• Ask the class if they have heard the term “Money doesn’t grow on trees.”
• Do they know where a person can put money to make it grow?
• Do they have any money saved? What kind of investment is it?
• Explain that today they will be researching different kinds of investments that people can buy to make their money grow.

Action:

• Divide the class into 6 groups.
• Each group will be researching a financial investment.
• Assign one kind of investment to each group — TFSA, GIC, RRSP, RESP, Bank Saving Account or Stock Market.
• They are to use the internet to research and report back to the class:
  • what the acronym represents,
  • where to buy this kind of investment, and
  • what the advantages and disadvantages are of putting money into this kind of investment.

Consolidation of Learning:

• The groups share their findings with the class, discussing what was learned about each kind of investment.

Evaluating Success:

Success Criteria:

• For homework, the students are to pretend they have $100 to invest. They are to use the knowledge they learned today and write a paragraph explaining why they chose this way to invest the money.

Confirming Activity:

• Ask the students to share with their family, what they have learned about investing.