Help children to grasp the basic concept of categorizing money and where it is kept or spent.
Group Meeting:
Gather your group to your meeting area and have them take a seat.
Open with the question, “Has there ever been a time when you’ve been told you can’t have something you really wanted until you’ve earned it?”
Depending on answers, follow up with questions such as, “What was it you had to earn?” “How did you earn it?”
Explain to the group, “Some parents give their kids an allowance, while other parents sometimes assign tasks to earn an item or reward. Either way, both examples are good ways to practice for when you grow up and have to earn your needs and wants in life.
On either butcher paper or a whiteboard, write four categories:
Needs
Savings
Wants
Giving
Pose the following questions and write out the group’s answers.
Similar to last week, ask the children for examples of things they would need to spend money on first to survive?
Follow up by asking, “Which category money should go into next?”
Why is it a good idea to save money?
What kinds of things should we save for?
What are some examples of wants we may spend money on?
Where are places we can give or donate money to?
Why should we be wise about how much much money we give?
Transition to the activity by telling the group to think about their own financial goals and where they’d like to see money go.
Summary of Tasks/Activity:
Where My Money Goes
Pass out the Where My Money Goes handout to children, as well as writing and coloring utensils.
Tell your group to consider the four categories of where money can go, then write or draw out one example of each category where they’d like to see their own money go.
Assist as needed—refer back to the group visual from earlier for examples.
