Financial Literacy

·      I think that Financial Literacy is an interesting topic, especially since it was not covered when I was in school. There are many benefits to teaching it to elementary students. One of these benefits is putting students in different situations so that they can learn about the economy and understand how important this topic is to them. I think its good to let students see things from another perspective where they can explore different economic situations that they may not have known about before. I think that many students do not fully grasp the concept of money, and many take it for granted, so I think its great that we are teaching students about it, making connections to their lives and their community so that they can fully understand it. I think its very beneficial for students to learn about financial literacy earlier in life. Like on of the teachers in the video, I wish I had financial literacy when I was young so that I could have made wiser decisions with my own finances. I think its very important to be financially competent and be aware of where your money is going when you buy something.

·      Financial literacy can be integrated into many different topics in all grades for Social Studies. The main topic is budgeting in everyday life, but it can be incorporated into other subjects. For example, students can look at basic human needs and how much living costs, or how much it would cost to start a recycling program in their community. Any topic that involves money (i.e. the Olympics example used by Zoe) can be used to integrate financial literacy into the lesson. Students need to be aware of how much money is valued in the world and they need to learn more about it any chance they can get. More examples of where/when to incorporate financial literacy into a Social Studies lesson can be found at this EduGains site. It gives examples of financial literacy in lessons for grade 4-12 and includes a PDF of each lesson plan.