Smart Saving Strategies - Financial Literacy in 1st Grade
My students need jars, labels, storage bins, and books to create individual spending, saving, investing, and giving banks to increase their financial literacy.
FULLY FUNDED! Mrs. Hobby's classroom raised $989
This project is fully funded
My Students
It is difficult to balance a budget and save money even as an adult, yet we want students to understand abstract economic concepts such as needs and wants and goods and services. Young students need real-world experiences with saving money, in order to develop important financial literacy skills.
First grade students learn best when they experience concepts through real-world application.
Even at a young age, they are learning to save money. They are also developing an understanding of needs and wants. In our small, rural town helping others is an important part of our community. Creating and designing their own saving banks will enable them to take ownership of their saving and spending, which can sometimes be a difficult concept for them to understand.
My Project
Each student will create four savings banks (mason jars): a spending bank (to teach them to become a wise shopper), a saving bank (to show them if you save over even a short time money grows), an investing bank (to save money for long term plans like college), and a giving bank (to learn select causes that are important to them and make donations). They will use the labels, chalk markers, and stickers to decorate the banks and storage cubes. The cubes will also provide a decorative and safe place to store banks at home. Students will set individual savings goals (with the help of parents), and track savings and spending with a data collection graph that will be sent home in weekly folders. They often make connections with characters in the children's literature read in class. In order for them to understand the purpose of developing a banking system, we will read about children who have learned to save and spend wisely. The requested books will motivate them to save.
It is so important that students develop financial literacy at a young age.
Education must go beyond simply teaching children to count money, we must also teach them the importance of saving money, helping others, and setting goals. Your generous donations will make it possible for my students to develop their own hands-on banking system where they will design the savings banks, develop financial responsibility, and apply the economic concepts of spending and saving.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Hobby and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
