money and the quality of things he had at the end of the story. We also talked about bus tokens since this group of children do not live in the city and don’t know about public transportation and bus tokens. I distributed the graph paper and the bag of coins to each student. I asked them to read
the note in the bag and to make sure the number of coins was correct. It took a minute to do this but conveyed the idea the money was for use in that lesson and needed to be returned to the bag when we were finished. I asked students to separate coins and place them on the paper to make a graph. We asked the usual graphing questions (which has more, less, how many more, how many less). While they were answering I was able to glance at desks and assist individual students in putting their coins on the graph. The idea to use this piece of literature to count coins with children has been around for
many years (the book was published in 1978). As I reread the book aloud, we removed coins and answered the questions: How much does Alexander have left? How much has he spent? When we finished the book I asked students to check their lists and make sure all the coins were in the bag. I wanted to move this lesson beyond counting coins and adding and subtracting from
$1.00. I started by asking if they knew how Alexander felt about money. One student said the book said Alexander liked money. Another student added “a lot.” I asked if his broth- ers gave him good advice. This resulted in stories of big brothers and bad advice. I asked students if they remembered what Alexander wanted to buy if he saved his money. We had to talk about what a walkie-talkie was and put it into perspective with the technology of today. I asked several other questions: Do you think Alexander will ever save enough money to buy what he wants? If you could give Alexander advice, what would it be? What should Alexander’s parents do?
Students Write to Alexander
The consensus from our discussion was that Alexander needed help. I asked students to write a letter to him. My instruction was that their letter advise Alexander on what he needs to do when he gets money. After writing their letters, students read them aloud. Each student had advice for Alexander. I wanted to move students from the story to their own economic ideas. I asked,
“When you go to the store, can you have everything you want?” A few students said their parents buy something for them when they go to the store. A student said he could buy things when his family had money and went to the dollar store. One student said she was saving her money for something special. One child said, “of course not,” which was what I wanted to hear. I asked, “Why can’t you have everything you want when you go to the store?” After some discussion I heard from more than one child that if there isn’t enough money, you can’t have every- thing you want. This lesson was of high interest to students. It led to defining the difference
between wants and needs. Children shared what they noticed when shopping with their parents. We can only hope that earlier introduction of economics to young chil- dren will foster careful thinking about money and bring about a generation of finan- cially savvy adults. !
Jane Crawford is a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching Mathemat- ics, a Math Solutions consultant, and the author of Why Can’t I Have Everything? Teaching Today’s Children to Be Financially and Mathematically Savvy and Math By All Means: Money. She is currently living in Kalispell, Montana.
See reviews of Jane Crawford’s books on page 20 of this issue. ©SYNERGY LEARNING • 800-769-6199 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 Connect • PAGE 3