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Theme: Money
Lexical area: Money (cash, bank account, borrow, earn, lend, cheques, credit card etc.)
Instructions for language assistants in italics
Introduction:
This lesson can be combined with activities from the lesson entitled Pocket Money and Pester Power that you will find in the Essential UK archive. In the UK, the average weekly pocket money is £6.30 for 7-12-yr-olds and £9.76 for 12-16-yr-olds. (Source: http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/fi/fi_27.asp)
You could start this lesson by telling your students this, converting the amounts into local currency and comparing with the amounts your students get. For higher levels you could dictate this fact to your class to start off the lesson. To make it more challenging you could leave out the figure and ask them to guess it first.
Task 1 is a simple brainstorming task to elicit money vocabulary. Task 2 is a class survey about money. Task 3 gets students thinking about whether or not they think it’s fair to be asked by their parents to do jobs in order to get their pocket money. Task 4 is a ranking task which looks at the importance of money and Task 5 is a reading task for higher levels based on a website message board. Task 6 is a discussion, while Task 7 is a creative one and asks students to design a personalized credit card.
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1. Money money money
This activity is to introduce students to money vocabulary. You can use the board rather than copying the task for each student. Write MONEY then ask students for other words connected to the topic of money. Link them up, like in a crossword format. Either do this with the whole group together or start the students off on the board then ask them to continue in pairs. You could have a competition to see which pair can link up the largest amount of words.
Task 1 Money money money
How many words connected to money do you know? Add as many as you can to the crossword.
C
R
MONEY
D
I
T
COIN
A
R
D
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2. Money survey
Before starting to do the survey, ask students to write two questions of their own in the survey table. Then put students into groups of five or let the whole class work together and choose which four students they’d like to ask their questions to. When they have all completed the survey, either ask the students to write a short summary of their results or to give the whole class some feedback from what they found out.
Task 2 Money survey
Before you start asking four classmates the questions in the survey, write two questions yourself in the blank spaces. Write your classmates names in the top row of the table.
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| 1. How much money did you spend last weekend? |
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| 2. What do you usually spend your pocket money on? |
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| 3. Do you think you’re going to do a well paid job in the future? |
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| 4. Have you ever lost any money? |
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3. Jobs for pocket money?
Ask students if they ever have to do jobs around the house in order to ‘earn’ their pocket money. Then put students into pairs to look at the jobs listed in task three and to discuss them. If they think they should do the jobs in order to get pocket money they should mark them with ‘PM’, if they think the jobs should be done anyway, regardless of pocket money they should mark them ‘DA’ and if they think they should never have to do these jobs they should mark them ‘ND’. This could lead to an interesting discussion in the group.
Task 3 Jobs for pocket money?
In the UK, some children have to do jobs in order to get their pocket money. Have a look at this list of jobs. Decide which ones you think you should do for pocket money (PM – pocket money), which ones you should do anyway (DA – do anyway!) and which one you should never have to do (ND – never do)? Mark the jobs with the initials.
- Tidy your room
- Wash the car
- Do the washing up
- Make a meal
- Babysit a younger brother or sister
- Fold or iron your clothes
- Study a lot for exams
- Clean the kitchen
Now discuss your opinions with a partner.
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4. How important is money to you?
Students should work in pairs or small groups to do this task. The idea is to rank the items in order from the most to the least important. Encourage students to persuade one another to agree with their opinions. They may have to compromise on the ranking in order to agree.
Task 4 How important is money to you?
Work in pairs or small groups. Put the following things in order from the most to the least important. You may have to persuade your partner to agree with you.
Love / Friends / Family / Home / Music / Money / Holidays / Studies
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5. Message board – Money matters
This reading task is aimed at higher levels. You could either give it to students as a normal reading comprehension or alternatively you could cut up the opinions of each contributor and give each student in a group just one. They should read the opinion, then explain it in their own words to their group. The group should then answer the questions together.
Answers: 1) Jackie and Tony 2) Bella 3) Joshua 4) Mark
Task 5 Message board – Money matters
How much does money matter to you? Write to our message board with your thoughts about money! Tony, age 14, Bristol – I get £4 per week pocket money. Most of my friends get more than me. I mean, what can you buy for £4 these days? I usually buy a computer games magazine and some chocolate. Mum says I should save up my pocket money if I want to buy something special but it takes me months! Bella, age 16, Cardiff – When I turned 16 I got a Saturday job in a local coffee shop. It’s great, lots of young people work there and we have fun. It’s tiring though as I’m on my feet for 8 hours with only half an hour lunch break. But I love having my own money to spend on what I want. I’m saving up to buy a new mobile phone. Joshua, age 12, Dublin – I’m going to be a millionaire when I’m older. I really want to have my own business and make lots and lots of money! I mean, people always say money isn’t really so important, but let’s face it, you can’t do much without it! I imagine myself in ten years time with a huge house and lots of cars! Jackie, age 15, London – I get £10 a week pocket money. I get it every Saturday but only when I’ve tidied my bedroom and cleaned the bathroom. That’s not fair! None of my friends have to do jobs in the house to get their pocket money. Mark, age 17, Glasgow – I used to think money was really important. I used to save all the money I could so I could buy CDs and computer games. I wanted to have a job where I would earn loads of money so I could be rich. Now, I’m not bothered. My best friend has been really ill and it has made me realise that money isn’t important really, your health is though. |
- Who’s unhappy with the amount of pocket money they get?
- Who’s enjoying earning their own money?
- Who thinks money is really important?
- Who has changed their opinion about money recently?
What would you write to the message board. Answer this question in the box below.
How much does money matter to you? Write to our message board with your thoughts about money!
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6. Money discussion statements
This is a task for higher levels. Make one copy of the discussion statements and cut them up. Put your students into five groups and pass the discussion statements around the groups, giving them two minutes or so to discuss each one.
Task 6 Money discussion statements
Money makes the world go round. |
If you’ve got it… spend it! |
Work to live, don’t live to work. |
Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. |
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7. Personalised credit card
This is a fun task for students to design a personalised credit card. They should write their name on it and choose a design that reflects their interests or personality. Give some examples if necessary, such as having photos of their favourite sports or music stars, their favourite cars etc.
Task 7 Personalised credit card
Your parents have decided to give you a credit card to use to spend your pocket money! You can decide on the design for your very own credit card. Draw your design here:
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Internet links
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