[MissESL]

I teach a 7/8 mixed grades ESL class. They have expressed an interet in learning about money--bills, change, checking, saving, budgeting, etc. However, I have never had the opportunity to teach this before, and have no idea how to proceed. Any ideas or websites, resources, etc. that anyone has would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[teachnkids]

I'm in the middle of creating a unit on this. I teach 6th grade math. Basically they will walk into the room and be able to pull a career from a hat. It will include the salary. Then they will have to set up "life" by finding a home to live in, get a car, and figure out what other things they are able to afford. I have some stuff from a workshop I went to. I'm going to tweak it to meet my kids needs. I'm going to give them 3 options for housing, 3 options for a car, etc. They will choose based on their salary. Once we get it all set up I will choose one day a week for them to update their finances---register pay, pay bills, and take care of "incidents" that occur. On that day they will again pull X number of papers from a hat and some may be for extra expenses, while others may be extra money for something. Haven't figure out all the details, but plan to work on it this weekend.

If you belong to Edhelper.com they have a bunch of reading comps on finances.

[SMB]

Have newspapers available and let the class look through the classifieds to find the cost of housing, entertainment, cars, etc. I also collect grocery store fliers, rental brochures, and anything that includes costs of items that might be considered in setting up a home or moving into the real world. Many students pick high end housing, cars and then I have them look for employment positions that provides them with the level of income necessary to sustain the lifestyle. For some, it is an eye-opener and they begin to realize the value of education and working toward goals. I think this type of project is really worthwhile; good luck with your class.

[MissESL]

Thanks to you both for the awesome ideas! :-)