Income Tax Day!!

The objective of this activity is for the student to have an understanding of financial situations. In this lesson the students will learn about jobs in the community with real situations. This activity has many components to it, but is extremely fun for the entire class.

The teacher first discusses with the students about our laws, consequences and taxes, which will help develop their own town in the classroom. Then tell the students that they are going to be 'paid' $20 for coming to 'work'. But money will be deducted when you need to go to the bathroom when it is not break time ($2) or playing on the class computer ($5). For starters the students will decide a name for our town. Then they will have a mock election. This contains a campaign by 3-4 students (to become mayor) , a debate with questions from their classmates and a voting on who they think should be mayor.

Every day a new student will be the classroom 'banker'. This student will be responsible for charging, paying and making change for their fellow classmates. Also the class will be responsible to pay county tax; this can be from $4 - $6. The money that will be collected will be a fund for class activities. For example, a 'fun movie' can be worth $400 and extra playground time can be worth $200. You would also explain to the students that adults pay taxes to make schools, roads, and our town a better and prettier place to live. Also if we don't pay it, we will get punished. If the student misbehaves he will not be able to do the class activity, which will loose his tax money he/she payed.

Another activity that connects would be the 'mock court case'. The teacher will set up a robbery and therefore there will be a court case. There will be students picked for the criminals, a lawyer, a of course a jury. The teacher will be the judge and observes the decision if the criminal is guilty or non- guilty.

There will be other discussions among these activities on real world aspects on how this work outside the classroom.

As an assessment, students will be tested on their knowledge on what was taught.

This is a role play strategy. Students are acting like adults and doing things adults do in real life. Another strategy would be cooperative learning, the students will be working in groups and as a entire group.

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/SSOJobsInCommunityFromRealSituationsInClassGoodIdea35-htm

Story in a bag

Objective of this activity is given an example of a story in a bag, all students will be able to create a story about personal finance, consumer studies using five to eight items found in a bag.

Set: (Time: 0-5 minutes). Greet students. Ask students if recall key concepts involving personal finance and consumer awareness. Write all ideas on the board (example: budgeting, cash vs credit, saving, loans). Ask students to explain why these things are important and how they are interconnected. Allow all willing participants to share their ideas. If there are no willing participants then call on 4 or 5 people to comment.

Development: 1. Explain to students that today we are going to be creating personal finance and consumer awareness stories. Take out a bag of items and model the activity . 2. Advise students that each group will be given a bag of items with which to create a story. Explain that they can choose how to present it (role play, improve, dialogue, etc). Students will be given twenty minutes to discuss their items and prepare their stories. The following guidelines must be followed: A) Your story, skit, dialogue, etc must take place within a personal finance or consumer awareness context. **** At the five minute mark of planning, your group must have the context of your presentation approved by the teacher. B) Everyone must actively participate in the presentation *** Everyone must speak at least once, everyone will be at the front during the presentation, everyone will help create the presentation. C) You must use a minimum of five props in their presentation. D) You will have 3 minutes to present your story to the class. Handout the evaluation forms so students can see the expectations. Go over the expectations. Call on one student to give the instructions of the assignment in their own words. Allow students to get into groups of 3 or 4. If creating groups is an issue for this class, number students 1-4, all ones together etc. 3. Provide each group with a bag of items. Groups will work in their groups. Circulate through all groups to ensure that they are on task and to clarify any instructions. Items in the bags include: credit card application, drivers license, grocery flyers, penny, vacation pictures, map of Canada, bottled water, jewelry, phone book, Starbucks coffee, newspaper classifieds 4. Call all groups back to the class. Groups will have three minutes each for presentation of their stories. Questions and comments will be held until the end of all presentations. Advise students that they each had a number written on the bottom of their bag. This is the order in which groups will present (1, 2, 3 etc)

Instructional strategy: discussions and grouping

http://anuntitledstory.wordpress.com/instructional-strategies-and-lesson-plans/

Take a Stand!!

The objective of this lesson is to have a discussion with the class on dealing with issues.

A) Develop a number of discussion questions based on dealing with issues

Where Do You Stand Discussion Questions

1) The death penalty is an effective way of reducing the murder rate in America.

2) An increasing number of Americans are voicing their opposition to abortion.

3) Marijuana has been proven to reduce pain in medical situation and should be legalized for that purpose.

4) Martin Luther King's dream of equality for all Americans is closer to reality than ever before.

5) The American people have less faith in their government than any time since the Watergate affair of the 1970s.

6) The US has a moral responsibility to spread prosperity and democracy to other nations in the world.

7) If I were a parent of a teenager, I would let them watch any TV shows or listen to any CDs that they wanted to.

B) Place a large card in each corner of the room that says one of the following:

Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
("I am way down with that!") (I can dig it, sort of...) (I'm not down with that!) (No way Am I down with that!)

C) Have students write their response on scrap paper before physically moving to either corner of the room. This prevents the "herd instinct" from taking over. Then allow them to stand under the card that best fits their opinion.

D) Have students discuss their viewpoints according to where they stood.

This lesson is a cooperative learning strategy. The students are working together discuss issues.

Hershey Fractions

The objective of this activity is that student will be able to take a whole and divide into fractional parts and be able to problem solve on how to divide up the bar evenly among their group memebers.

Materials: Hershey chocolate bar for each group, notepaper and pencils

Activities/Procedures:
Divide the class into cooperative groups with 3,4 or 6 in a group for lower
elementary students, any number for upper elementary students. (Remind the
students that they will be using the chocolate bar for answering questions and lots of touching will make it melt.)
Use these questions as a hand out or to guide the activity.

1. 
   Before you open the candy bar estimate how many pieces it is divided into.
   Estimate? Actual? How many rows? How many columns?
2. 
   What addition or multiplication problem do you see using the above
   information? Write the problem and a picture below.
3. 
   Break off the first column of the candy bar. How many pieces did you take?
   What fraction of the candy bar did you take?
4. 
   If we use each column to stand for one so that the candy bar has 4 sections,
   and we take one section, what fraction do you take?
5. 
   Break off another column. How many pieces have you taken all together? What fractions of the candy bar is gone?
6. 
   Can you think of a different way to say that? * Hint: Look at the two piles.
7. 
   Break off another column. How many pieces have you taken all together?
   What fractions of the candy bar is gone?

This is a cooperative learning strategy. The students are working in small groups of students to work together for the achievement of a common goal.