Funny Money

We are really starting to get into our money unit in class.  The same group of competitive kiddies who had a blast beating their teacher in the "Deep Sea Dive to Zero," laughed themselves silly as they once again claimed victory in the "Race Your Teacher to $1.00" game.

In order to practice identifying coin values, I turned on my ActivBoard and got my kids involved with a very funny game on the "Practical Money Skills for Life" website.  If you are interested in information to improve your students' (or your own!)  financial literacy, this site is for you!  It is packed with information, lesson plans, games and resources.  The game we chose to play was "Ed's Bank," and boy, did we laugh ourselves silly!

The goal of the game is to fill Ed's bank with the greatest amount of money possible.  For the kids, skill wise, it is really important to identify which coins have the greatest value.  They try to drag the coins into the bank as quickly as they can.  I swear, it was like an aerobic money workout! Even the kids who weren't up at the board were screeching with delight!  

After a round is up, the kids can choose whether to keep saving or go shopping!  They need different amounts to purchase items for Ed, and once they do, they are rewarded with Ed's silly antics.  I tell ya, this was like laughter therapy for my student teacher, my TA and myself.

If you have a few extra minutes before or after math one day...try Ed's Bank.  Your students' hearts will be going, "Cha-ching!"