Children need hands on experience with money in order to understand the elements of the economic system. Students must have opportunities to count, sort, and handle coins, and to save spend money. A classroom allowance program will give kids that experience.
Banks for Storing Student Allowance Money
Whether real money or plastic, students will need something to store it in. One useful and inexpensive “bank” is a simple box made out of used greeting cards. The teacher can make the boxes ahead of time, or the students can learn to make them with some adult assistance. These boxes can be stored in the students’ desks, in cubbies, or in book or math boxes.
How Much to Give for a Classroom Allowance
The amount that children should receive will be dictated by grade level performance standards. A kindergarten class might only need to collect pennies and nickels, or pennies and dimes.
First graders generally need to learn the values of all the coins and combinations that make a dollar. To achieve this, the teacher might begin by distributing two or three pennies a day in the beginning of the year. After a week or so the children will need to trade up to nickels in order to infuse pennies back into the classroom bank and to reduce the bulk in student banks. Trading up also helps the students to learn the equivalences for pennies and nickels. Second and third grade classroom can use larger amounts based on appropriate goals.
Consider giving students a “raise” every week or so. A penny raise each time for younger children will ensure lots of experience making multiple combinations for each allowance amount, and helps students to build important math concepts in increments (e.g. understanding teens by combining a dime plus various penny amounts).
How Often and How to Efficiently Distribute Allowance to Kids
The most effective classroom money program will provide students with allowance on a daily basis. Some teachers choose to link the allowance with specific academic or behavioral expectations. Others believe that, just as adults get paid for showing up at work and doing a good job, students should understand that their “job” is to show up at school and do a good job there. These teachers give a daily allowance that is not linked to external earning routines. Teachers should also determine whether and what kinds of fines they want the children to experience.
After a week of handing out allowance to a class of twenty or more students, it quickly becomes evident that it is inefficient for the teacher to be in charge of this task. A simple solution is make the money accessible so that students can take their own allowance each day upon arrival. To help ensure that students take the correct amount, post a small sign near the money with the amount listed and a picture of the correct coins.
Teaching Children about Money Combinations
One way for the students to begin learning the values of the coins, and to begin making combinations, is invite them to “trade up” with the class bank. Five pennies trades up to a nickel, ten pennies trades up to a dime, etc. As with the distribution of allowance, small increments will go a long in way in teaching money combinations. Limit trading up to a nickel for a few weeks, then introduce dimes. Let children trade up to quarters only when they can make the appropriate combinations independently or with limited assistance.
As students become proficient with making money combinations, individuals can take over the task of banker, and rotating the job among classmates as appropriate.
Providing allowance for kids is a fun way to learn about money. But students need an incentive to stick with the program. That incentive is the class store. For tips and suggestions about how to run a class store that teaches children even more about money read, "Teaching Kids About Money With a Class Store."
Margaret M. Williams - Margaret M. Williams (Peggy) has been a teacher for over 25 years. She currently teaches first grade in a classroom that combines native ...
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