Ontario Financial Literacy

Teach Ontario financial literacy in your special education classroom like never before!

If you are like me you are winding down the school year and preparing for summer break!! I always end the year off with a month of financial literacy in mathematics. I am in Ontario so we need to focus on Ontario Financial Literacy in our classrooms, however these principles will apply to ANY special education classroom. There’s really not much rhyme or reason to why I do the financial literacy unit at the end of the year, but that’s how my long range plans have always worked out in the past couple of years.

I am SUCH a fan of teaching money in a real way. We have a toy debit machine and a toy till that we use to demonstrate how to pay money for items, as well as how to accept money. 

 

We do a LOT of creative play and creative role play while we do our financial literacy unit because we in special education know, repetition and hands on activities will have a lasting impact, and thus turn into mastered skills! 

 

Our goal in special education is to turn abstract thinking and curriculum expectations, and turn them into mastered life skills that students can take with them into every area of their life.

I want to take you on a journey through how I incorporate financial literacy in my elementary special education classroom. These strategies will really apply to all students and special education classrooms, however I wanted to give you some context to where these particular activities are coming from. 

 

I do use a curriculum and lessons that I focus on with a ton of games and activities. This curriculum program also has printable pages and assessments to really see where students are at. If you are interested in this curriculum package (that happens to be less than a lunch out in cost), click here! 

Here are the activities that I ALWAYS incorporate into our financial literacy unit

1. Store Dramatic Play– here we can turn ANYTHING into a store. If you’ve got some toy food, you’ve got a grocery store. Sometimes I go to Starbucks and ask for some free empty cups and we play STARBUCKS- so cute! It’s always a hit. 

The goal of this dramatic play activity is to practice handling and counting money. It is also a way to practice social skills and develop functional play skills.

2- We always play games that revolve around money. Two fun games that we always play are “I have who has” with money amounts and Money Bingo. Both of these games are included in our Financial Literacy Unit package, for a quick PRINT & GO activity!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmBUy3vhTdg

3- We sing a lot of songs….and I mean a lot of songs! If there is a song on youtube about it, you know we’re going to be singing it and listening it to it on the DAILY!! We literally find youtube songs for every skill we are trying to incorporate and that includes all our math concepts. Our students love songs and connect to music in ways that I have not seen before! Many of these skills based, educational songs, are songs that students request during preferred activity times. Songs are a way to have students to learn and connect to concepts in a very fun and engaging way. 

 

 

This in a special education classroom, is a GAME CHANGER!

At the end of the day we try and incorporate as MUCH tactile learning as we can. We try to make sure we are having many different ways to practice the same or similar skills in our classroom. 

 

If you are ever stuck for how to teach financial literacy in a very intentional and tactile way, save this blog post for future reference!

 

Remember, if you need a unit to teach this unit, or need a unit companion, you can grab it here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5wlXd1y3MA

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