Lesson 1 Redux

From Urbany re: Lesson 1

I just started up in Mrs. Haun's class today and a few observations.

1. very helpful to have been with Brady and Kwabe in their first lesson

2. 8:45 a.m. is our starting time - I like this - at least on this day, the kids were alert and focused -

3. this lesson can be streamlined into 4 basic components, following a brief introduction:
(45 minutes max)

3.1 what is money ? (3-4 minutes)
+slide 1.1: ask about Abe Lincoln and why the pig ? note the 4 slots
+slide 1.2: what do you spend money on? (just get 2-3 examples)

3.2 Barter (25-30 min)
+OK, let's pretend there is no money - i.e., money has not yet been invented. You need pencils for school. I am the pencil merchant. I need 3 volunteers. (have them come up and stand in line ... talk to each of them one at a time) - what would you give me for these 3 pencils you need? After student 1 gives you an offer, ask them to step aside and have student 2 give an offer, etc. so it is essentially competitive bidding. Today I got offered a cow and some wood, a pig, and a cabin for my 3 pencils. Have the class vote on which is the best offer.
+introduce the word Barter (have them write it down)
+then discuss slides 1.5 -1.6 - when finished, ask "what are problems with trading animals and food? get some discussion going
+then show slide 1.8-1.9 and discuss the problems of fraud, spoilage, disease, and worth
+how about metal? 1.10 Ask about the problems here (say, the ticket price for the local theatre production is 3 giant pots ... too bulky, still don't know value)
+now do worksheet #2 - give them 4 minutes - make sure they focus
+pick 2 kids by name to present and talk about their picture and the value

3.3 Money (10 min)
+slide 1.12 - the king of Lydia has a solution
+quiz question 1 T/F - the smallest coins ever were smaller than apple seeds
+then show 1.13
+question 2 - mile of pennies (get votes for each option)
+question 3 - largest bill... get votes for each option... tell them to close their eyes and put up the overhead of the $100k bill
+ask what are the coins we have in the U.S. (dollar, half-dollar, quarter, dime, nickel, penny)
+do the math problem here --> add up the value of all our coins (ans = $1.91)
+put overhead 1.2 back up and explain that if all you had were coins, everybody would get weighed down... so paper money was invented to have larger value and to be lighter.

3.4. Summary (5 min)
+what did we learn? (write down: Barter, Money, Coins, Currency)
+so we talked about the history of money - we know why we have money and where it came from...
+Next week, -- Where do we get money ? (those ATMs do not MAKE money; and money doesn't grow on trees ! )