Lesson Instructions Rationale, Timing, and Background:These lessons work for the start of the year toward skill acquisition for the performance goals of the Next Generation Science Standards, and the associated CCSS math standards. We begin our Journey with Leonardo da Vinci, our very own STEAM engine, who personified the cross-pollination of the mind, embodying the […]
3rd grade
Making Money in Education
Who says you can’t make money teaching? Each year I use a token economy as a system to encourage students to help in the classroom with attitude and work, and in the first day of school we make coins out of homemade dough with ¾” PVC to roll stamp them out with. It’s nice to have some textures to press in the dough, too. That’s what I call rolling in the dough! Or, at least, rolling it out.
In preparation you can read “The Story of Money” by Betsy Maestro, which actually can take a couple of hours to get through orally, or you can give a brief history of money from Wikipedia or this nice concise version from PBS. Any of these can also be read or introduced during the making of the money. The idea, though, of working together on a physical task, is that it allows conversation to happen, and we are the people who also teach how to be a person.