Economics Wisconsin Home


Wisconsin Economic Standard
D.4.1

Money

Describe and explain of the role of money, banking, and savings in everyday life

Economic Concepts
Money  ||  Barter  ||  Saving  ||  Banks


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Links to Content Information

blue check mark American Currency Exhibit - Money hasn't always looked like it does today. Explore the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's American Currency Exhibit online and watch history come alive as you step back in time to our nation's beginning. Learn how our country's rich history is closely tied with our currency. Discover the role the Federal Reserve has played--and continues to play--in that history.
blue check mark Credit Card 101  -  Fells Fargo Bank explains credit card use and  terminology. 
blue check mark B.E.P. Kid's Page (Bureau of Engraving and Printing) - Links to activities, a game, and information for students about money.
blue check mark Children and Money - Information for teachers about the importance of money management skills for children.
blue check mark A Comparative Chronology of Money - A detailed chronology of money in its social and political context from the very earliest times onwards.
blue check mark Currency Information
blue check mark FDIC Learning Bank - Information for children about banks, banking and the Federal Reserve.
blue check mark Helping Your Child Understand Money - Has sections on money, savings, investments and more. From MetLife.
blue check mark History of Money - Kids page from the Department of Financial Institutions of the State of Wisconsin. Includes Trading, Birth of Money, The First Coins, US Money Trail, Mint Act, "Greenbacks", and more.
blue check mark KidsBank.Com - Information about money, quizzes, calculators and games. Available in java and non-java versions.
blue check mark Dollars and Cents - Fundamental facts about money.. 
blue check mark Our Money - Has information about the appearance and design of U.S. currency, counterfeit protection, and the history of money. 
blue check mark Savings Options - Kids page from the Department of Financial Institutions of the State of Wisconsin. Includes Piggy Banks, Savings Accounts, Checking Accounts, and more.
blue check mark Treasury's Page for Kids - From the U.S. Treasury Department. Contains information about money, savings bonds, the history and role of the Treasury Department, and much more.

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Links to Lesson Plans and other Suggested Teaching Strategies

blue arrow The Berenstain's Bears' Trouble with Money - Students read about the cubs' spendthrift ways and how Mama and Papa Bear teach them to earn and save.  Students learn about figures of speech, and they create "critter banks" in which they can begin to save.
blue arrow The Big Green Pocketbook - Grade 2. Economic Concepts: Consumption, Saving, Goods and Services, Taxes
blue arrow The Changing Face of Money - Grades K-2. Students will compare old forms of money with modern forms of money, discover some characteristics that money should have, and use their knowledge of money to design the money of the future.
blue arrow Changes in Change - This lesson will sharpen students' money counting skills and introduce you to some new coins.
blue arrow Exchange City - Grades 2-3. Students will demonstrate the process of bartering by exchanging with another child an item that is more valuable to them.
blue arrow A Gift for Mama - In this lesson, students read a story about a young girl named Sara. Sara has always made gifts for her family for special occasions. For Mother's Day, Sara decides she wants to buy a gift for her mother. After reading and discussing the story, students will create a booklet in which they've illustrated Sara's short-term savings goal and their own short-term savings goal.
blue arrow Going to Town - Grades 2-3.  Economic Concepts: Resources, Trading, Interdependence 
blue arrow I Have No Money, Will You Take Wampum? - Teaches how people received goods and services before there were coins and paper money and that this exchange called trade or barter is still used.
blue arrow Jack and the Bank Stalk - Grades 3-5. Students will list the roles and functions of money, apply the definition of money to various alternatives to money, and describe the role of banks.
blue arrow Kermit the Hermit - This lesson examines spending and saving decisions related to the book, Kermit the Hermit, a crab who wished to repay a poor boy's kindness but couldn't figure out how.
blue arrow The Leaves in October - In this lesson, students read a story about a family living in a shelter. The daughter, Livvy, and a friend, Belinda, sell tissue roses. They share their profits. Belinda spends her money; Livvy saves her. Students learn about different places to save their money and the advantages and disadvantages of each. They also learn that spending and saving decisions have opportunity costs.
blue arrow On the Money - Students will explore what money is and how it differs around the world. They will compare U.S. currency with play money and with money around the world. They will then use their knowledge to design their own money. 
blue arrow Pennies Make Cents - Students learn the meanings of these words: money, currency, barter, wampum, trade, exchange.
blue arrow A Rooster and a Bean Seed - Ages 7-10.  When people specialize and become interdependent in satisfying their economic wants, trade or exchange of goods and services will occur. The principle of voluntary exchange is based on the assumption that both sides expect to gain from trade. The simplest form of exchange is barter or the direct trade of goods and services between people. In this lesson, students hear a folk tale and participate in a simulation that helps them recognize problems with barter and benefits of monetary exchange.
blue arrow Teachers Guide for Money Unit - From the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
blue arrow What is Currency? Lessons from Historic Africa - Grades 3-8 - These lessons explore the monetary system of the Akan. Exploring the historic role of gold-dust in African trade will help students understand the basic idea of currency and give new significance to the nickels, dimes, and quarters in their own pockets.
blue arrow Other Web Sites - This page lists web sites offering a wealth of lesson plans for teaching economics, in addition to these lesson plans.

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List of Curricular Materials and Learning Activities

red push pin Master Curriculum Guide in Economics: Teaching Strategies K-2, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from  EconomicsWisconsin. Part 5, Lesson 21-25: Money, Markets, and Exchange - Grades K-2. Students learn about barter, the use of money, and markets. Scroll down the 
red push pin Master Curriculum Guide in Economics: Teaching Strategies 3-4, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from EconomicsWisconsin. Relevant lessons: 
  • Lesson 7: Let's Trade -  By participating in a trading activity, students learn that using money instead of barter makes trading easier. 
  • Lesson 8: Money is What Money Does - Grades 3-4.  Through an experiment, students learn the functions and characteristics of money
red push pin The Community Publishing Company - Grades 3-5.  In this series of 33 lessons, students explore their communities, then write reports, form a publishing company, and manufacture and sell their book. Through this involving and motivating program, students learn economic concepts: scarcity, opportunity cost and trade-offs, productivity, economic institutions and incentives, exchange, money, and interdependence, markets and prices, supply and demand.  From Economics America (search catalogue), available from EconomicsWisconsin.
red push pin Ump's Fwat - Grades 1-8.  This 24-page illustrated book teaches basic economic concepts through the story of a cartoon-character caveman named Ump. As Ump turns his idea (the Fwat) into a successful public company, students will learn about the principles of capital formation, including savings, investment, profit, employment, stocks, and dividends. From Economics America (search catalogue).
red push pin Money, Kids, and Cash- Grades 3-5.  On a visit to a bank in North Dakota, explore how banks play a vital role in their communities by lending money.  Video available from Discovery Channel.
red push pin Economics for the Elementary Classroom by Elaine C. Coulson and Sarapage McCorkle, 1982. St. Louis, MO: SPEC Publishers.  The following lessons for grades 2-6: 
    * Swap Day - pp. 107-108 
    * Try Trading - pp. 109-113 
    * Cash, Charge or Check - pp. 114-116 
    * Whoever Said, "Money Doesn't Grow on Trees?" - pp. 117-119
red push pin Once Upon A Dime -  Fable of the island kingdom of Mazuma and the growth of its economy from barter to a sophisticated modern system, with its own central bank. Illustrates basic concepts of barter, money, banking, and inflation. Rev. 1990. 24pp. Also available - videocassette to borrow or purchase. Available from Federal Reserve System. For order information, enter "Once Upon a Dime" (without quote marks) in the Keyword box, make sure the Title button is selected, and click on Search Now button.
red push pin Virtual Economics: An Interactive Center for Economic Education, Version 2 - Each exhibit includes teaching tips, background information, a list of lessons, and video and audio clips that give additional information about the topic.  Available from Economics America (search catalogue). 
  • In section Fundamental Economics, see exhibit:  Exchange, Money and Interdependence

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National Content Standard 11 and its benchmarks

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Email an expert

    Professor Jim Grunloh, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh 

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Developed by 
Lynn Kirby, Ph.D., Education and Technology Consultant and
Larry Weiser, Ph.D., Program Director, EconomicsWisconsin
University of Wisconsin--Stevens Point