My students need strategy board games to learn about everyday finance. Although we promote the use of technology in my classroom, playing board games allows for students to spend time interacting with each other.
My students are placed in math and language arts classes with me due to their high cognitive learning gifted identification. I am thrilled to be working with students who are curious about life and always seeking to explore new concepts in different ways.
These exceptional students enjoy diving into topics at a higher level than most of the peers their age.
For example, when we cover decimals and money in math we usually go more in-depth with this concept and discuss financial literacy.
The students like to research and read but learning by hands on activities is their favorite way to learn and I try to provide them with as many opportunities to explore and create as possible.
My Project
The concept of economics and financial literacy taught though lectures and worksheets about economics are sometimes boring, but making financial literacy more exciting is not an easy task. Parents have always been receptive to their children learning more about money management in my class so I wanted to create a more engaging unit this year. As a treat at the end of last year, I allowed time to play some older board games I brought in from home. I found out that most families don't spend much time at home playing games together. This lead the way for my decision to include board games in my financial literacy unit.
I decided that a variety of strategy board games that teach financial literacy skills might be a great addition to my classroom since strategic board games promote learning, unlock thinking skills, and stimulate brain development in children.
After some research, I have picked the board games Catan, Power Grid, Ticket to Ride, and Monopoly just to mention a few. Each of these games have a strong economic theme where players are learning economic principles such as buying low and selling high, making efficient use of resources to earn money, and balancing their budgets.
In addition to playing the board games in my classroom, we plan to invite parents in for an evening of strategy board games. We also plan to invite other classrooms to spend time playing financial fitness games with us. We also plan to explore The Stock Market Game which is an online activity for students grades 4-12. It will be exciting to use these resources throughout the whole year and not just during our Financial Fitness 101 Unit!
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