1. Is It Worth It? Gr. 4 Financial Literacy
Tell students that today’s lesson will learn about saving goals and opportunity costs.
Brainstorm with students goals that they have for buying goods and services in the future.
Is It Worth It?

2. Vocabulary
Alternatives are the different possibilities we choose from in a given situation. Opportunity Cost is the best alternative that we give up when we make a choice. Saving means not spending money now but instead keeping the money to buy things in the future. Savings Goal is any good or service for which you are saving Bank Failure happens when a bank goes bankrupt.
Do: Briefly introduce the vocabulary from the lesson (as needed).

3. Essential Questions
How can a person's ability to reach a savings goal be affected by their choices?
Analyze the image and Brainstorm with students answers to the essential question. They will answer them individually at the end of the lesson.
Image:

4. Image: http://classroomclues.com/uncle-jeds-barbershop
Tell the students that you are going to listen to a book, Uncle Jed’s Barbershop, by Margaree King Mitchell. Show them the cover of the book and ask the following:
What do you think this story might be about? (Answers will vary but may include getting a haircut, a little girl, or a barber.)
Do you think that Uncle Jed is the man in the picture on the cover of the book? (Answers will vary.)
Who do you think the little girl is on the cover of the book? (Answers will vary but may include Uncle Jed’s niece or a customer.)
Image:

5. Uncle Jed’s Barbershop
Video link:
Tell the students that saving means not spending money now but instead keeping the money to buy things in the future.
In the story what was Uncle Ned saving for? A barbershop
What goods or services have you saved for? Answers will vary.
Tell students that a savings goal is any good or service for which your are saving.
In the story what was Uncle Jed’s saving goal? A barbershop
Tell students that alternatives are the different possibilities we choose from in a given situation. Whenever the choice is made, something is given up. That is an opportunity cost. An opportunity cost is the best alternative that we give up when we make a choice.
What choices did Uncle Jed Have to make in the story?
Give his savings to his brother, Sarah Jean’s Father for her surgery or open his barbershop.
If you go to the store and you only have money for either an ice cream cone or a snow cone and you choose the snow cone, what is your opportunity cost?
(an ice cream cone)
Why can’t you have both the ice cream cone and the snow cone? (only have enough money for either an ice cream cone or a snow cone)
Because you don’t have enough money for both an ice cream cone and a snow cone, what do you have to do? (make a choice)
If you chose the ice cream cone, what would be your opportunity cost? (a snow cone)
What was Uncle Jed’s Opportunity Cost?
The opportunity to open his barbershop.
Why did people during the Great Depression become very poor?
People that put their savings in the bank lost all their money because the banks failed. Bank failure happens when a bank goes bankrupt. Today banks have insurance to protect people’s money in case of banks failure.
As poverty increased during the great depression people did not have money, how did the people in the story meet their needs and wants?
They traded goods and services.
How did people pay Uncle Jed to cut their hair, if they did not have money?
They paid with vegetables from the garden, eggs, and prepared meals for Uncle Jed.
What was their opportunity cost?
The food they chose give up and not use for themselves or trade it for something else.

6. Saving and Spending Game
$50.00
In this game, you will take turns rolling dice and drawing cards in order to reach your savings goal—a new video game that costs $50.
Follow these directions:
1. Create teams. Divide the class in two groups. This game can be done in small groups.
2. Assign one student from each team to be the recorder and two others to be the calculators. The recorders will record information in the registrar and the calculators will calculate the balance as the students play the game.
3. Provide each group with a bag with the spending and savings cards.
4. Tell a student from each group to throw both dice and multiply the two numbers on the cubes.
5. The recorder writes this number in the “Amount” column on the register next to the number “1.”
6. Each player draws a card from the bag with cards. They read the event and the recorder writes the event in the “Event” column on your register. Place the card in the used pile.
7. The players will determine if their event card describes saving or spending. If your card describes saving, the recorder enters a “+” in the “+ or –” column on the register. If the card describes spending, enter a “–” in the “+ or –” column on the register.
8. The calculator will determine the balance by adding or subtracting the amount in the “Amount” column from your previous balance based on your entry in the “+ or –“ column. The recorder will enter the new balance in the “Balance” column.
9. The students continue to take turns rolling the dice, drawing cards, and making entries on the register until they have saved the $50 or more they need to get the new video game. If the students run out of cards before they reach the savings goal, put the cards back in the bag, shuffle the cards and continue to draw cards from the pile.
The team to save the money first is the winner.

7. Saving and Spending Game
September 17, 2018
How many weeks did it take each group to reach the savings goal?
What made it difficult to reach the savings goal?
Did any groups ever have less than zero in their balance at any time?
What does less than zero money mean?
Why is it harder to reach a savings goal in real life or in the saving and spending game?
In real life, which are easier to achieve—savings goals that cost a little bit of money or savings goals that cost a lot of money? Why?
How many weeks did it take each group to reach the savings goal? (Answers will vary.)
What made it difficult to reach the savings goal? (Answers will vary but may include drawing cards for spending, rolling low numbers on the dice and then drawing a saving card, and rolling high numbers on the dice and then drawing a spending card.)
Did any groups ever have less than zero in their balance at any time? (Answers will vary.) What does less than zero money mean? (had to borrow)
Why is it harder to reach a savings goal in real life or in the saving and spending game? (Answers will vary.)
In real life, which are easier to achieve—savings goals that cost a little bit of money or savings goals that cost a lot of money? (savings goals that cost a little bit of money) Why? (It takes longer to save for savings goals that cost a lot of money because more money has to be saved and because more things arise to spend cost a lot of money because more money has to be saved and because more things arise to spend.

8. Essential Questions
How can a person's ability to reach a savings goal be affected by their choices?
Discuss with students how their initial interpretation of the image has changed.
Ask students to answer the essential questions in their Social Studies Journal.
Ask for volunteers to share their answers. .
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