EGP 335

Lesson Plan
Ashley Jackson
Unit 6: Working in Communities
Lesson Title: Earn, Spend, and Save Your Money! Part I
Day Number: 9
Grade 3
Background Information
In this lesson, students will participate in a budget simulation activity through creating their own
budgets on Excel and calculating the numbers to determine a savings amount. They will be
setting a financial goal to keep in mind as they are planning how they will save and spend their
money.

Expected Duration: 1 hour

Concepts
o Economics
o Budgeting
o How people earn, spend, and save money
o Financial goals
Vocabulary
o Savings
o Spending
o Earnings
o Budget
o Financial goal
Skills
o Identifying
o Computing
o Analyzing
o Active listening
o Planning
o Comparing
o Contrasting

1.1 Integration of Learning Outcomes

Students will create a budget on their tablets and calculate the numbers within the budget
to determine how much money they are saving. (Total earnedTotal spent= Total saved)
Students will set a financial goal and brainstorm at least two ways to achieve it through
various ways of earning and saving money.
Students will demonstrate respect for their peers while sharing their budgets and financial
goals.

1.2 Standards
PA Standards
Economics
6.1.3.D. Identify reasons why people make a choice.
6.5.3.B. Identify different occupations.
6.5.3.A. Explain why people work.
6.5.3.G. Define saving and explain why people save.
Mathematics
CC.2.1.3.B.1. Apply place-value understanding and properties of operations to perform multidigit arithmetic.
CC.2.2.3.A.1. Represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division.
Technology
3.4.3.C.1. Recognize design as a creative process and everyone can design solutions to problems.
NCSS
Product, Distribution, and Consumption
D2.Eco.1.3-5. Compare the benefits and costs of individual choices.
D2.Eco.2.3-5. Identify positive and negative incentives that influence the decisions people make.
1.3 Anticipatory Set
On the ninth day of the unit, have the students sit at their table groups. Begin by saying to the
students, Good Afternoon boys and girls. As you may know, we will be continuing our Working
in Communities Unit. We have been talking about competition and supply and demand in the
economy. Today we are going to be learning some new things about earning, spending, and
saving money. Lets start with a short Brain POP video
(https://jr.brainpop.com/socialstudies/economics/savingandspending/) to introduce this to us. As
we watch the video I want you to think about the three questions I have written on the board:
How do people earn money? (By doing chores, jobs, birthday/holiday gifts). How do people
spend money? (Needs and wants). How do people save money? (Put money in their piggy bank,
jar, or bank).
1.4 Procedures
1. After students watch and discuss the video, begin the lesson by explaining to the students
what a budget is. It is a plan on how you will save and spend your money. Budgets can
help us achieve a financial goal, or something we really want that we are saving up for
such as a new skateboard.
2. Tell students that they will be creating a monthly budget today on the tablets using Excel.

3. Explain to them that they each will be getting a different worksheet that will have the
amount of money they have earned for the month to help them simulate how to create a
budget (show them the worksheets on the interactive whiteboard). They will have to
calculate the amount of allowance they have earned for that month and the total amount
of money they have. They will have the option of how much money they would like to
spend on the items that are on the worksheet and how much money they would like to
save towards a financial goal.
4. Have students choose one of the items on their sheet to be their financial goal and write it
on a sticky note. The teacher should write their financial goal as well.
5. Model and explain to the students how to fill out the Excel budget sheet on the tablets
with the worksheet where the items and amount of money are located.
a. Display the teacher modeling worksheet on the interactive whiteboard. Show the
students how to calculate their total allowance for the month by multiplying the
amount of money they earned for one week by four because that is how many
weeks are in a month ($4.50 x 4 = $_______ per month). Then display the Excel
spreadsheet on the board. Type the word allowance into the box called, How
Did I Earn It? and then the amount earned, $18.00 into the box, How Much I
Earned. Finish filling in those boxes with the words, Birthday Money and
Other Money with the amount of money listed on the worksheet. Calculate the
Total Earned by adding up all three numbers (using scrap paper) and placing the
number into the correct box.
b. Continue to model the second half of the Excel spreadsheet by thinking aloud
about what you would like to purchase using the items written on the sheet.
Hmm, I have $70.50 to spend or save. My financial goal is to eventually
purchase the bike, so I will keep that in mind. I think I will buy the 10 iTunes
songs for $9.99 because that is a good deal to me and I will also buy a t-shirt for
$9.99 and large pizza for $11.99. Now that I have circled the items I want, I am
going to put them into my Excel spreadsheet so I can find the total amount I am
spending.
c. As a guided practice, have the students help fill in the boxes called, Item I Will
Spend It On and How Much It Costs by calling out the items and prices
previously circled. Total them up as it was done previously with the money
earned.
d. Finally, to fill out the equation on the bottom of the budget sheet, have students
call out the amount of money that goes on each line and solve it ($______Total
Earned -- $______ Total Spent = $______Saved).
e. Wow, so I have $38.53 saved to go towards my financial goal of a bike which
costs $89.99. I will need to save the same amount for about 1 and a half more
months if I want to reach my goal.
6. After the modeling and guided practice, pass out the worksheets so that each student per
table group has a different sheet to work on. Have each student get their tablet where the
budget sheet is already pulled up on the screen for them.
7. Have the students begin working on creating their budgets. Let students help each other if
necessary or discuss how they want to achieve their goal.
8. The teacher will circulate and assist students as needed.

9. Once the majority of students are finished, have the students turn and talk with a partner
to share/compare and contrast their budgets and how they will achieve their goals.
10. While the students are sharing, the teacher will be walking around to hear their
thoughts/discussions and to ensure that students are respecting each other as they share
their budgets and goals.
11. Once all of the students are finished sharing their budgets with a partner, the teacher will
have the students screenshot their budgets on the tablets so he/she can look at them later
as a form of summative assessment to be added to their unit portfolios.
1.5 Differentiation

For students who need to be challenged in mathematics, give them the worksheet with
higher numbers and have them create their own budget spreadsheet in Excel where they
can record their information.
For students who need more support, pair them up with a partner to work on one
worksheet and budget together. If students are having difficulty calculating the numbers,
they are allowed to use a number grid, grid paper (to help them line up their numbers), or
a calculator to help them check their work.
1.6 Closure
As an exit slip on a half sheet of paper, have students write down how much money is in their
savings, their financial goal, and how they would plan to achieve it. To complete the lesson, say
to the students, It was so interesting to see everyone creating their budgets. You all worked so
well on this activity. It is tough to do but it is very important and useful to keep track of money
earned, spent, and saved so that you know where all of your money is. It is also a great way to
plan out how to achieve your financial goals. Tomorrow we are going to be using the savings you
calculated for this activity to learn about banking.
1.7 Formative/Summative Assessment
Formative Assessment: The teacher will be circulating while students are working on their
budgets. While students are sharing the teacher will walk around to ensure students are
respecting each other as they share their budgets and goals. At the end of the lesson, the teacher
will collect the exit slips from students to read over and ensure that students were able to
complete todays task. (Learning outcomes 2 and 3)
Summative Assessment: The teacher will collect the tablets and view the students budgets to see
if the students understood the task and if they calculated the numbers correctly. The teacher will
print out the budgets so that students can include these in their unit portfolios. (Learning outcome
1)
Checklist for the Monthly Budget Spreadsheet
_______ Student completed The Money I Have Earned section with three ways they have
earned money (taken from their worksheet), the amounts earned, and calculated the total
amount of money earned.
_______ Student completed the How I Will Spend My Money section with at least one item (a

choice from their worksheet), the cost of the item, and calculated the total amount of money
spent.
_______ Student completed the Savings section through placing the appropriate numbers into
the pre-made equation and computed the numbers to determine a savings amount.
1.8 Materials/Equipment

Student materials for lesson implementation:

o Classroom set of tablets
o Pre-made Excel budgeting spreadsheet
o Worksheets with various money allowances and items to purchase
Attached to this lesson plan and adapted from:
http://www.moneyandstuff.info/lessons/2bbudgetinglesson_allowa
nce.pdf
o
o
o
o

Sticky notes
Sheets of paper
Pencils
Additional websites/activities for students to explore if done early:
http://www.econedlink.org/interactives/html/414/em414_story.html
https://jr.brainpop.com/socialstudies/economics/savingandspending/
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.php?lid=414&type=student
http://googolplex.cuna.org/13520/cnote/article.php?doc_id=2500

Teacher materials and resources for this lesson design and implementation:
o Sample lesson plans, where ideas came from, and help for building content
knowledge:
http://www.moneyandstuff.info/lessons/2bbudgetinglesson_allowance.pdf
https://prezi.com/lnb2l14uobsq/earning-spending-and-saving-money/
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.php?lid=414&type=educator
https://educators.brainpop.com/bp-jr-topic/saving-and-spending/
https://jr.brainpop.com/socialstudies/economics/savingandspending/
https://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAAahUKEw
jAnJTMjvPIAhVC7CYKHRx4DNc&url=http%3A%2F
%2Fwww.projectmoney.org%2Fteaching
%2FJellyBeanGame.xls&usg=AFQjCNGiOBsFzyDV7TvNgXqRyvSXlDQ8w&sig2=444c6O5C_cMXBfNsjpZyJw
http://moneyandstuff.info/
o Websites for student book resources:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/books-teaching-economicconcepts

http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2013/07/24/thebest-childrens-books-for-money-lessons
o Teacher materials for lesson implementation:
Tablet
Projector
Interactive whiteboard
Excel budgeting spreadsheet
Sticky note
Pencil

1.9 Technology

During the modeling and guided practice components of the lesson, the teacher will be
using a tablet and projector to display the budget plan the students will be completing
during the lesson.
The students will be using the Microsoft Excel program to create their monthly budgets
on individual tablets.

2.1 Reflection on Planning

While planning this lesson plan, I found it enjoyable, but there were a lot of details that needed to
be incorporated into it. Because of the time constraint of only an hour, I had to scratch a lot of
the ideas I originally had when choosing to write the lesson for this section of the unit plan on
earning, spending, and saving. I thought it was a good idea to focus on simulating the creation of
a budget so that students can learn how to keep track of their own money so they are aware of
where money goes and how it is possibly spent in their homes. It is so important to be
economically aware of your moneys whereabouts. I thought it was a good idea to have the
students create a financial goal for their savings because they probably do this a lot without
realizing it (such as when they are saving to buy a bike). A concern I have for when this lesson is
implemented is that the students could be confused about how to exactly budget the money given
to them. I also am concerned that the vocabulary words arent taught directly but rather
informally through actually doing the vocabulary words (financial goal, budgeting, earning,
spending, and saving). I think that students will learn more and appreciate this form of
vocabulary instruction better than filling in a worksheet about the words. This lesson will be a
good leeway into the next lesson about banking because we can take the savings from this
activity and use that money to learn about how to deposit money into the bank and how to
withdrawal it.
2.2 Content Outline
Lesson 3: Earn, Spend, and Save

Lesson 3 Vocabulary
Savings: the money that is saved
Spend: to use up your money
Earn: gain or get money in return for labor or service
Financial goal: a target or goal that is set for how someone will spend or save their money

 Budget: a plan for spending and saving money

Have students relate these vocabulary words, as well as the story offered in the text to their
own lives
Perhaps develop an in-class project that requires students to work with their peers as family
members in order to go through some of the same steps that the Wright family does in the
textbook
Lesson 3: Beyond the Vocabulary
A. A Family Earns Income
a. Each member of a family can earn money
i. The son does yard work, the mother owns a photography business, and the father studied how to
run a factory and is the manager in a steel factory
b. Class activity: Students could earn money for classroom jobs they complete such as cleaning
the whiteboard.
B. A Family Spends and Saves
a. It is important to make decisions about money as a family
b. Class activity: Have 3 envelopes with save, spend, & donate written on them. Act as though we
got an allowance & explain the 70, 20, 10 % idea of splitting-up money.
c. Spending money
i. Income is usually spent on things that a family needs to use every day
1. Food, housing, clothing
ii. Income that is left over can be used for wants
1. Karate lessons, movie tickets, or CDs
iii. Some families do not spend all of their money on themselves
1. Sharing money with groups that help people in their community is called donating
iv. Families can also save leftover money as well
1. It is very important to have a savings and you can follow a rule that guides you in how much to
spend on needs, wants, and put away in savings
v. Class activity: Create a classroom store. In the store can be stickers, pencils, erasers, and
notebooks. Students can purchase these items with the money they earn from doing their
classroom jobs.
C. Family Makes a Budget
a. Many people keep a budget to keep track of spending and saving their money
b. Making a budget
i. Write down each family members job and the income made from them
ii. List ways they spend money and organize the money into 5 groups: shelter, food and clothing,
fun, giving, and savings
1. Write the totals for each groups spending
iii. The budget, when complete, shows the family how they spend their money and can be
economically successful
iv. It is now even easier to make a budget, as programs such as Excel give templates to easily make
one
v. Class activity: have students create a budget on Excel
c. Reaching Economic Goals
i. If a family follows their budget, they will reach their goal

ii.
D.
a.
b.
E.

Students can create financial goals for themselves and plan for how they will achieve it.
Make an Economic Choice
When you choose to buy a product, you are giving-up buying another product
When buying a product, you will give up money to get what you want
To wrap up this lesson, we could watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=0k9K7dnDxKg about advice from kids on saving money. It is not always accurate so it will be
important to talk about the correct answers to these questions after. This is neat though because
children may have these same questions and will want to know the answers to them.