Analyze spending, use budgets, compute monthly payments and tie everything together in the Game of Life! A REAL WORLD 21ST CENTURY MATH PROJECT! Basic Operations, Percentages and Critical Thinking are put to the test in this financial literacy challenge!
This is 60 page pdf with 3 assignments and 1 mega-project. Answer Key included when possible (students will make a lot of choices)! ***THIS PRODUCT HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH A GOOGLE SLIDES INTERACTIVE VERSION INCLUDED. REDOWNLOAD IF YOU HAVE IT ALREADY***
In “Bookkeeping Basics” students analyze the spending of different individuals and determine whether or not they have the available funds necessary to purchase an item they would like. “Can I afford this?”
In “Budget Busters” this assignment asks students to analyze the budgets and actual spending of different individuals. Are they spending within their budget? More they can analyze a budget, students will need to determine net pay after calculating their taxes. Students will need to translate between percents, fractions and decimals.
In “Monthly Payment 101”, this assignment asks students to calculate monthly payments of different loans. Students will also be asked to choose between different loans.
and this leads to the mega project --
The [simulated] Game of Life. This project is multi-faceted, but you can modify (shorten as desired).
***THIS PRODUCT HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH A GOOGLE SLIDES INTERACTIVE VERSION FOR DISTANCE LEARNING INCLUDED. REDOWNLOAD IF YOU HAVE IT ALREADY***
Students will choose between 54 career cutouts which starts them off with an annual income, income tax rate, debt and savings account. (NEW! As an alternative you can dish out careers and updates with this app: http://tiny.cc/GameofLife)
With this information students will…
Consolidate their Debt. Students will choose a single loan to pay it back. They need to be careful what they pick because they don’t want to have a monthly payment they can’t afford.
Once they have their loan’s monthly payment information they will…
Complete a Budget. They will calculate their Net Monthly Income and Create a Budget for their spending.
With their budget set, it is time to make…
Choices! They will select a plan for housing, utilities, phone, food, transportation, savings and extras. They need to be sure not to spend too much money. (All data is included). Note: I have included an option of cigarettes to show how much they cost and how unaffordable they can be. (We have added a version in the file without them as an option)
Once they are done with these tasks, they will put your choices to the test. They will complete SIMULATED YEARS.
You will give students an Update (30 included) which will change information regarding their employment, family changes and unforeseen obstacles!
Students may get married or have children. If they get married, they need to find someone else in the class that also got married and POOF they are now partners on this project. They are married. If for instance, on their next update, they get divorced, they need to split their savings and move on.
Students will then reassess their finances, re-evaluate choices and complete their Year 2 (or 3 or 4 or 5) assignment.
In this 60 page document you will be given a mapping to the Content Standards, and a thorough packet that will challenge your student's critical thinking skills.
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This product includes a license for one teacher only for personal use in their classroom. Licenses are non-transferable, meaning they can not be passed from one teacher to another. No part of this resource is to be shared with a colleague or used by an entire grade level, school, or district without purchasing the proper number of licenses. If you are a coach, principal, or district interested in transferable licenses to accommodate yearly staff changes, please contact me for a quote at teach@clarkcreativeeducation.com
This resource or answers to the questions may not be uploaded to the internet where it is publicly available in any form including classroom/personal websites, network drives or student Prezis (can be made private), unless the website or app is password protected and can only be accessed by students.
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