Saving Money

I was very pleased to see the new book, Just Saving My Money by Mercer Mayer. Bernice, at the Franklin County Library System, sent me the book for this blog. At first, you may wonder what a book about money has to do with social emotional skills but saving money is the ability to delay gratification. It has to do with impulse control and we all know how important that can be. As pleased as I was about the social- emotional aspect, I was excited to find an age appropriate book which addresses PA Early Learning Standard 6.5 -Work and Earnings. I haven't found too many that are appropriate for preschool children, but this one fits the bill.

There are many ways to use this book in the classroom. Some teachers like to give reward points, tokens, or hearts to the class for good behavior. This book would be perfect for a discussion of what kind of reward the children would like to have when they reach the goal or target. It would also go along with a class saving pennies for a community project. Your class might want to save their pennies to donate book to the local library, buy a gift for the cafeteria workers, or the residents of a local nursing home. Of course, you could just use the book to teach about money and banks. Even though children will only to able to have a beginning understanding, a field trip to a local bank could be a good learning experience. With ATMs and direct deposits, many children may never have been inside a bank.