Creating a Classroom Economy (Freebie)

January 24, 2015
Teaching money in 2nd grade is not my favorite thing to do. My students often don’t recognize the coins and we are supposed to teach them to count above a dollar in one to two weeks. Fairly impossible for some of them. So, I decided to implement a classroom economy this year to continue practicing money through the second half of the year. 
Each day, students receive credits or fines for their actions in the classroom. My students came up with things that would earn them money and things that would lose money. 
Here’s a list of what they came up with to earn and lose. I came up with how much each thing was worth.

I’m glad someone was listening when I’m always fussing about their hands in their mouths. So gross! But believe me, this has worked and we have been fairly healthy as a class. 

I came up with a list of rewards to encourage them to earn. I made them high enough that they really have to work to earn something good.

I made some cards with each credit or fine on them to hand out if needed.
It’s actually worked better for me to just have the amounts match up on Class Dojo.  This way, I can quickly see how much money they have earned or lost when they come to the bank at the end of the day. You can see how I’ve weighted the items on Dojo.
For the last 10 minutes of the day, students come to the bank (me) and get their earnings for the day. We practice trading up coins and they are getting better at it. In a few weeks, I’m going to let one of my students be the banker. 
So, I’m sharing this file with you. I’ve made it editable so you can make it fit the needs of your class. I would suggest letting your kiddos come up with the credits and fines so they take ownership. 
All I ask is that you leave a comment if you download this file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6u8Oi4cDc3GLUo1T19YMEc2YlU/view?usp=sharing
Click on the image to download.

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13 Comments on “Creating a Classroom Economy (Freebie)

  1. How do you make the reward be worth +3 or +5 points? I haven't been able to figure out how to add or deduct multiple points without doing it all manually.

  2. Courtney
    Great idea I am going to start it tomorrow… We have been having a few issues. I have a few questions do you hand out the credit and fine cards during the day or do you let Class Dojo keep track of the points till the end of the day.

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