Fun with Personal Finance

This week my students are learning all about personal finance.  We have discussed income, taxes, budgeting, and, of course, bank accounts!  Before we learn about balancing a checkbook, I wanted make sure that my students could determine whether a situation meant we would be depositing money into our "bank accounts" or withdrawing money.

A sort was definitely the way to go!  Anything using scissors and glue makes the students super happy.....so why not give it to them?

Students cut out the sort, after picking the color of paper they wanted, and worked in groups to decide in which column the given situations should placed.

I gave the students about 12 minutes to cut out the sort and discuss with their group.  Then we discussed each situation, and the students had to explain how they knew that it was a deposit or withdrawal, ex) "Since we bought the new iPhone, we had to take money out of the account to pay for it."  I know it sounds obvious, but it's super important to me for the students to be able to verbally justify everything we do in class, even the easy stuff!

After we agreed that each situation was sorted into the correct column, the students glued it to a piece of paper and put it into their Math ISN.

Here's the sort if you would like to use it....and it is free!

Now we are ready to balance those checkbooks!!!

Have a great Thursday!