‘You’re never too young to discuss money.’
Financial education is crucial. Introducing students to the concept of money at an early stage creates a foundation for financial knowledge. One should have constant discussions about managing finances and making the right choices. Good awareness about money matters prepares them for the future and makes them financially independent. It also helps students understand the value of money at a very early age.
Here are a few essential things to keep in mind :
- Introduce them to the concept of saving
It is important to teach students why saving is essential. You can encourage them to buy a piggy bank and start saving whatever little they can! This activity is the best way to introduce children to finances.
- Creating a budget
Spend some time with them and explain the importance of budgeting and why it is essential to plan right at the beginning of every month.
- Providing Allowance
You can start by giving them small allowances and asking them to manage it. Let them make their own decisions and discuss it with them at the end of the month.
- Introduce taxes and investing
As children grow, start introducing them to the concept of taxes and investment. Understanding taxes and the basics of investment make students capable of taking advanced financial decisions.
Understanding money is highly important, and worksheets are a great way to ensure constant practice.
Learning Money through Worksheets
Worksheets are very effective when it comes to exploring the concepts of money. Worksheets can be well structured and must be made to cover all the concepts in a relatively lesser time. Worksheets also enable students to approach a problem in a stepwise manner. Students can begin their learning process by getting involved in simple tasks like counting of notes/coins and gradually move to more advanced concepts like simple interest, compound interest, etc. Worksheets should also be designed in such a way that it gives a quick recap of the whole chapter and help put the concepts learnt to use. Students can improve their performance by solving a well-designed worksheet.
Worksheets are useful not only to the students but also serve a greater purpose to the teachers as they help keep track of those concepts that students find the most challenging. Apart from this, worksheets should also be capable of inducing creative thinking. By solving worksheets that are challenging, students can become great problem solvers.
Worksheets can help a lot in terms of improving analytical skills and boosting logical reasoning. Because of all these benefits, worksheets can be of great help to the students as well as teachers. Let us explore different aspects of creating worksheets for learning concepts of money.
Money worksheets: Covering the basics
Worksheets should be designed in a stepwise, challenging manner. This means that the level of difficulty should be gradually increased. Basic concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division should be covered first and later, advanced concepts like simple interest, compound interest, etc can be explored.
Let us see how to approach these questions topic wise.
Addition
Questions on addition can range from simple problems to complex equations. The symbol of addition is “+”. We can use many methods to perform addition like finger-based addition, vertical addition and mental math.
Questions under this category can be related to the addition of process of all commodities in bills, counting coins in a piggy bank, money borrowing problems, etc.
Note: While trying to solve questions in Money, when you are working with mathematical expressions, currency signs should not be included.
Subtraction
Subtraction problems in a money worksheet can be simple problems or equations. The symbol of subtraction is “-” which is called “minus”. Subtraction can be performed by finger-based calculations, vertical as well as mental math.
Subtraction problems can include concepts like borrowing, withdrawing funds from an account, etc.
Multiplication
Repeated Addition is called Multiplication. The symbol for multiplication is an x.
Money problems related to the concept of multiplication start getting more complex. You can try and incorporate a few simple multiplication problems before moving to the harder ones.
Multiplication word problems can include computing bills in a grocery store, taking into consideration there are more quantities of the same item. Advanced multiplication sums can be chosen with a combination of the operations previously learnt i.e addition and subtraction along with multiplication. The idea is to gradually increase the difficulty level of the worksheets.
Division
Splitting a bigger group into an equal number of smaller groups is called Division. The symbol for the division operator is “÷” or “/.”
Similar to multiplication, we can start with simple division sums and slowly move to more complex ones which involve multiple steps with a need to use multiple operations.
Profit and Loss
Profit and Loss is a very interesting concept which comes as part of the Money chapter.
Based on the Cost Price of a product and its Selling Price, children will be asked to calculate and check if the transaction is profitable or not. They can also be asked to calculate the profit or loss percentage.
Percentage
A fraction represented with 100 as the reference point is called Percentage.
Percentage problems involving financial concepts can be solved easily if the children understand the basic concepts of Money.
Interest
Interest is the extra amount that has to be paid by a borrower to his lender in addition to the original Principal amount that was borrowed.
For example, if a bank agrees to lend you Twenty thousand dollars and wants the money back in a year with an interest of 5%, this means in one year, you must pay the bank the original borrowed amount along with a 5% interest.
To understand the different types of interest-based problems which are to be included in the money worksheet, let us discuss the two most common types of interests:
- Simple Interest
- Compound Interest
Simple Interest (SI)
SI is a type of interest that is to be paid for borrowing an amount for a specific duration. The interest is calculated based on the principal amount that is borrowed and does not depend on any other factor.
The formula for calculating Simple Interest is,
SI = (P x R x T)/100
P: Principal Amount
R: Rate of Interest
T: Period of Interest
The final amount to be paid is the sum of the Principal amount (P) and the interest (SI).
Compound Interest
This is a type of interest that is seen during investments. Compound Interest is calculated on the Principal amount (P) and also on the interest that gets accumulated over time.
It can also be defined as the Interest on Interest.
The Formula for CI is,
A = P x (1 + (R/n)) ^ (n×t)
A: Total amount to be paid
P: Principal Amount borrowed
R: Rate of Interest
t: number of time-periods elapsed
n: Number of times interest compounded during the time-period
Questions related to all these concepts can be part of the money worksheets for higher grades. Worksheets should have at least ten questions dedicated to each concept individually. You can try combining these concepts and creating more money-related questions which are advanced in nature. It is important to follow a stepwise mechanism while framing questions for the worksheet as already discussed.
Create worksheets with visuals
When it comes to learning money, you can use various images in the worksheets to engage the students. Images of coins or notes work great as they make these worksheets more relatable and engaging at the same time. You can also include solved examples in the worksheets to create better clarity and understanding.
Interactive worksheets and games
Interactive worksheets can be super fun and engaging. Money based interactive worksheets come with a feedback mechanism. Interactive worksheets are capable of telling students if a particular answer is right or wrong. You can also add visual simulations to your interactive worksheets.
Cuemath provides free interactive worksheets. These worksheets cover all the concepts of money and its application. Cuemath gives students a strong mathematical foundation. The Cuemath app has a lot of money based worksheets and games which are available for free. You can suggest these worksheets and games to your students and ace their learning!
Follow these steps and include all the concepts mentioned above in your personalised money worksheets. I hope this article helped you get an idea of how to create a worksheet for learning money. If you have any queries, feel free to mention them in the comment box below. Thank you for spending your time here. I hope it was a useful read.