The classroom economy program is an effective and enjoyable way to teach your students fundamental financial literacy components without altering your curriculum.

Implementing the program is an easy three-step process:

1. Before the school year starts, you spend a few hours gathering materials and planning how to customize the program for your school and your own classroom.
2. During the first month of school, you spend some classroom time introducing the program and training the students to complete their tasks.
3. Throughout the year, you monitor the students' progress and provide support and guidance when necessary.

As they perform their tasks, the students will help you manage the classroom and, in the process, learn valuable skills—such as responsibility, the value of saving, and delayed gratification—that they will carry with them throughout life.

The program is experiential so there is no need to formally teach the lessons. Your students will actively participate and learn as a result. As one teacher told us, there's a thrill in seeing "the lightbulb go on" when a student realizes he or she should have saved money for the next month's rent instead of overpaying for an item at the auction.

Core objectives for students in Grade 6

Through My Classroom Economy, students learn valuable life skills in an experiential way.

Specifically, they are able to:

• Take part in a simulation of real-world economic activity.
• Learn the value of earning a paycheck, as they bank the salaries from their jobs.
• Learn how to budget their spending, balance a checking account, and make scheduled payments.
• Discover the importance of saving money to obtain what they want.
• Find out that every decision has an opportunity cost.

At this grade level, students earn and spend dollar amounts of three and four digits to match their math skills. They are also given more responsibility to maintain financial records—for example, bank slips for deposits and withdrawals—to emphasize the importance of recordkeeping and attention to detail. The documents also provide key data for reflection during the year-end wrap-up.

For teachers of advanced Grade 6 students, consider adding advanced modules to the program, or even using the Grades 7–8 program as an alternative.