What is Money? How Do We Use It? Why Do We Use It?

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

I teach functional academics and skills, which include teaching real-life financial situations. Unfortunately, these situations are difficult to replicate in a self-contained special education classroom with so many different needs.

I teach a self-contained, bilingual, special education class of 14 first, second, and third graders.

My students are all Spanish speaking English language learners with cognitive impairments and/or other developmental disabilities who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Many are first generation Americans. The children range in ability- from those who are developmentally at a two year old level to those who are beginning to read and write. In the classroom we focus on "functional academic skills." Functional skills include: Life Skills, Academic Functional Skills, Community Based Learning, and Social Skills. The goal is for our students to be as independent as possible. Community Based Learning is where we most often focus on the financial aspect of functional skills. Monthly we take community trips where the students pay for items themselves.

My Project

The students will use the Allowance games to learn about earning money, which they will then start to do by completing their weekly classroom jobs. That money will be saved in their wallets (zip pencil cases) and can be used to buy high interest books that they will be able to take home (supporting family literacy). The books I am requesting will be priced differently so the students will have to plan ahead on how much they need to save. This project is two-fold. As I mentioned, monthly the students are able to take their money skills into the community. We use the "one up" method for paying, where students pay one more dollar than requested and then hold out their hand for change. However, this is difficult to continue in the classroom. Currently I use real coins to teach values, but we do little with dollars. With realistic bills and real coins, we can "play" store and practice the "one up" system in the classroom in addition to the community.

My goal for my students is for them to be productive and independent.

To lay the foundation for financial independence students needs to understand what it is to save money, and how to successfully buy items. Some of my students will learn what money is and what it represents, while others will learn to plan ahead, and others may be able to begin to independently pay for items in the real world.