April is Financial Literacy Month, so it’s a perfect time to introduce a classroom economy system. This program makes a great reward system and teaches students how to manage money. I’ve also found classroom economy systems to be very motivating for students. Several years ago I created the Classroom Economy Pack shown above to share these strategies with other educators. This resource includes several ideas for implementing a classroom economy system, money patterns, and a bank transaction record to use when setting up a classroom economy system. It’s free for my email subscribers, so if these resources interest you, use the Freebie link at the top of the page to sign up. Then click the link to the freebies page in the welcome message, and look for this resource under the Classroom Management heading.
One of my favorite ways to let kids spend their classroom money was to host a class auction several times a year. Each week I paid students for their class jobs with classroom money, and at the end of every quarter, the students brought in items from home to auction off. Here you can see them gathered around our carpet area where we spread out all of the items to auction off. At first I was the auctioneer, but then my students would take turns in that role. Those auctions were crazy and fun, and everyone walked away with a little something!
If this strategy sounds intriguing, sign up for my email list and download the free Classroom Economy Pack. Implement your classroom economy system and host an auction in your classroom. Your students will love it!
