Dollar-Up Activity Book

 Here is a fun activity book that can be put together for the kids to practice the dollar-up method. My kids actually got pretty good with this last year. Since we work on money weekly, I always throw in a few minutes of dollar-up practice at the end. The majority of my kids really struggle with coins, and this method has proven to be very helpful for them. This activity book can be put together in about an hour. It has ten activity pages where the students will Velcro the correct dollar amount showing how much they would need to pay for each purchase.

You can find this product here

Buying Gifts

Tuesdays we always work on money skills. Today I thought we would stray away from the counting coins/making change stuff we have been working on and do something a little more exciting. I put together this fun worksheet on buying gifts and gave the kids each a Walmart and a Target ad to use for cutting and pasting.  They really did a fantastic job!  Some of them were pretty funny.  We tried helping them along letting them know that maybe there was a better gift beside shampoo for your sister graduation. One of my young men even pasted a fruit platter on his page for a "neighbors housewarming". Another sweet girl cut out a 18 pack of bud light for "Your cousins wedding". Me and my aide were going over and over with her (she was adamant) asking if she really thought a case a beer was a good gift to take to a wedding which she responded "You didn't go to MY cousins wedding!" Guess you can't argue with that!   

You could do a price limit if you wanted, but since the pickings were kind of slim I decided against it for us. Here is a finished worksheet that one of my boys did.  From start to finish it took about 40 minutes for most of them. If you're interested in this worksheet, you can find a copy free over at my TPT store under "Buying Gifts"!

Sweetheart Funsheet

Boy am I ready for this three day weekend! 

I had all these plans of taking pics of the kids working on this Sweetheart funsheet next Friday so i could share it with you, but after thinking about, I figured that wouldn't give anyone else a chance to use it. So, here it is.  If you would like a copy they are FREE over at my TPT store.  Just follow the link below.  Enjoy your weekend!
ttp://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Valentine-Candy-Heart-Funsheet-1096752

Grocery Store Ads

I grabbed a dozen grocery store ads yesterday while I was shopping and put together this fun little cut & paste worksheet for my kids.  If you go to the ad on-line and click on any picture you can copy and paste it onto your document. There are so many activities that can come out of using the ads.  Ads from store like Target and Walmart are great as well. I have had my kids come up with a menu for a day using the ads, we have done scavenger hunts inside the ad, and also have had them shop for a week allowing them a certain amount of money to use.  You can also use the ads to find words that start with each letter of the alphabet or even money lessons! Endless possibilities. 

            Even better, they are FREE!

Money Cards

 I was working on an IEP for a new student a few weeks and was struggling to come up with a functional academic math goal.  Most of the goals I regularly work on with my kids were all to difficult for this particular young man.  I wanted to pick something that I could actually teach him, since looking at his IEP from high school it seems he rarely ever met any of his goals.


Luckily our program has some wonderful level one teachers I could go to for advice.  One teacher had these neat money cards in a basket she uses for her kids.  Each card is neatly laminated, very colorful and age appropriate for our kids.   

 What she does is hand the student some one dollar bills then lets them pick a card of something they would like to buy.  The student then has to hand her the right amount of dollars bills to make the purchase.  I am sure there is a lot of prompting and praise involved as well.  She says by the end of the school year all her kids have mastered the task!

She was going to try to find the cards to email me but hasn't been able to locate them so I made some of my own. I made 12 task cards only using one dollar bills.  There are copies of those task cards using dollars and quarters (12 cards) and some using the dollars and a variety of coins (12).  I also made 12 cards that use larger bills and another 12 cards with larger bills and coins.  I can't wait to start using them in my classroom!  I think all my kids will benefit from them!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Money-Cards-966675

Grocery Store Math

I put together this fun packet to fill in some of the community outing time we get each week.  Some of the worksheets are a bit higher than others to accommodate students at different levels.

 Students will have to look through each individual section or aisle of the grocery store to find the answers to each question. I hope this will be helpful to your kids!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Grocery-Store-Math-871412

Gift Cards and Special Education

I am not a huge fan of gift cards when it comes to my students.  I understand that they are more convenient to add funds too and using them prevents the students from spending their money on things other than what it was intended for. The problem with gift cards, in my opinion, is that's keeping the kids from learning the real concept of money.  Most of the time they have no idea how much is even on the card.  They just use it until someone tells them it's no good anymore.  Nothing like waiting in line for 10 minutes at Target with a student who is waiting to purchase his lunch with a gift card he has with zero balance, right? 

I try to encourage my parents throughout the year to send cash with the students when we go on our outings.  No better way to teach kids about money, making purchases, and getting change than letting them actually do it themselves!

I did go ahead and put together a worksheet on using gift cards. I know we will continue to see them throughout the school year so we might as well be prepared.  

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Using-Gift-Cards-831902

Writing Checks

 Here is a unit on check writing.  I haven't decided if I am going to add this to my curriculum next year because it may be a bit difficult for the class I have (at least this year). 

 It followed the path of where I was in writing our banking unit and I am pretty sure some of our higher classes will have fun with it even if I don't.  It really will depend a lot on the level of students I get next year as to what extra curriculum I will add.  

 Different kids seem to bring different circumstances.  One more day of school!! (well, until Monday when we start summer school!)  
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Writing-Checks-711980

Banking Your Money

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Banking-Your-Money

Here is a fun little packet on basic banking skills.  I talk a little bit about using an ATM but would highly recommend this web site here http://www.gcflearnfree.org/everydaylife/atm,  This web site has great tutorials featuring basic life skills.

Money Skills

 I do money skills weekly in my classroom. My students can so easily be taken advantage of when it comes to making purchases.  Here is an 18 page packet that starts very basic with counting pennies.  I have included pages on counting change and dollar bills.  There are also three pages on making purchases using the dollar up method. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Money

Menu Math Packet

I have put together 3 menu maths in the past few months and have been selling them seperately.  I have now bound all of them together to make 11 pages of menu math!  They include McDonalds, ChickFilA and Burger King.  The menu prices are accurate with the prices where I live, so I hope they are the same for you.   

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Menu-Math-Binder

Superstore Shopping

We are very fortunate at my work to have the opportunity to go into the community on a weekly basis.  I have posted a few worksheets (Grocery Store Hunt, Pharmacy Hunt) in the past.  This week we were taking a trip to our local Target, so I came up with this worksheet that the students could use while we were there.  They had just enough time (1 hour) to find all 14 items on their list.  We went over all their finds when we returned to class.  I think the kids really enjoy having an actual activity to do when we go out, than to just walk around the stores.  I hope you can use this activity with your students.  If you email me your email address, I will send you one for FREE!!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Superstore-Shopping-Activity

Dollar Up Method

Now, this is a concept that is new to me.  I found out last week that a colleague of mine uses this method with her class of special ed kids.  I had a OMG moment, "why hadn't I thought of this?"!.  I looked online and couldn't find much, so I made some worksheets to start the year.  Not only will this make life so much easier for my kids who STRUGGLE  with the concept of change, but hopefully it will minimize the chance of them being ripped off someday.  Now, I know this will require a lot of one dollar bills, but I am hopeful that after a while of working with the basics, we will be able to move up to dollar change. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dollar-Up-Method

Menu Math Burger King

Last school year I did a menu math packet for McDonald's.  But, for some reason last year, my students preferred Burger King.  So, this year I want to start out the first week working with this menu.  There is nothing worse than standing in line with 7 or so students who have no idea what they want to order, and when they decide, they can't afford it!

 This way we can go over the menu back at school.  They students can decide what they want to order, and what they can afford BEFORE we leave the building.  Also, most of my students have a hard time with the concept of tax.  They think if they have three dollar, they can buy three things off the dollar menu.  At least once or twice every Friday I have to pitch in for tax, but since I know before we go, I can make them work for it!  I also added a worksheet for practice.  Enjoy!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Burger-King-Menu-Math

Taxes

Here is a worksheet on taxes.  We live in California so I used the taxes that apply to us.  I also used a minimum amount of income tax.  The majority of my students will never work.  The couple that will, will most likely work part time. 


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Paying-Taxes

Eating Out

Every Friday I have a handful of students who bring money to school to go out to lunch.  I have students who bring 2 dollars and some who bring 10, so it's great to be able to go over a menu with them about what they will and won't be able to afford BEFORE we head out.

 I plan on making one for each of the establishments we frequent.  I also want to make worksheets for fun lessons on money and budgeting to go along with the menus.   Not sure if prices vary from town to town, but these were the prices at my local McD's.

Don't forget to add the tax!


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mc-Ds-Menu

Entertaining Guests

We do a few activities on entertaining throughout the year.   In this activity we are pretending we are having company come to our home for lunch.  The students have to make a grocery list by using the recipe cards attached.  Go to the grocery store with your list and find the items you have listed.  Add your totals when you get back to class.  Would even be fun, financing available, to put the students into groups of 5 and let them  buy the ingredients and create the meal.  We do another activity similar to this, where the students create their own menu for a pretend dinner party.  We go over all the things that would make a meal from drinks, salad, soups, main dishes and desserts.  They cut pictures from the abundance of food magazines we have and paste their menu to paper.  The menus range from mac and cheese with Hot Pockets to prime rib and brussel sprouts!  It is a lot of fun!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8NVsf6Y1KIvY3NHOTR1a1lTeWVBdlhJYlNwOU9aQQ/edit
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8NVsf6Y1KIvVVl2ZnhELUJSemFPckpZejFTQnlLZw/edit

Grocery Store Activity

                                                                    

 My students enjoy this grocery store activity.  I don't recommend bombarding one grocery store with 30 kids though.  Since there is a grocery store on every corner where I live we split the kids, aides and teachers up into smaller groups and go to a variety of grocery stores.   Students may need help at first trying to find the product with the best price, but it's a great way to incorporate money into the lesson.  This is also fun because at the end, after each group adds up their total, they can tell you which store had the better prices.  It almost becomes a bit of a competition.  Pick one up free at TpT.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Grocery-Store-Hunt

Pharmacy Hunt

Life Skills......


We have a pharmacy within walking distance of our school site so why not do a class on personal hygiene products, right?  The students love getting out, and I am pretty confident they should be able to (in small groups) find all of the items on their own. 

We can add up the totals when we get back to class!http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pharmacy-Hunt

Morning Warm-ups

Here is an example page of our Wednesday morning warm-ups.  I like to change it up and do a mix of different things we are working on that week.  We are also extremely fortunate that each of my students receive a copy of our local paper delivered to their desks each morning.  I will post a lot more worksheets that teach newspaper skills when I go back to work next week!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8NVsf6Y1KIvd0VycG11T19SMHlyM1k1SW5tRFpnQQ/edit