Knowing Growing Showing

Financial literacy resources for Indigenous students

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Unit 3 - Spending Money - Suggested Activities Establishing a classroom shop or shopping mall builds upon and consolidates concepts and skills learnt in previous units. Students explore needs and wants and value for money while planning and establishing their own classroom shop/s. The concepts developed and covered in establishing a classroom shop can range from very simple ideas which enable students to develop an understanding of how shops work to more sophisticated concepts such as market competition, business expenses and profit. The elements of establishing an enterprise are covered in detail in the Showing stage of this resource.

After consultation and discussion with students (using the focus questions provided as prompts) teachers could select activities from the following topics:

• Memory Game - Needs and Wants

• A trip to the shops (excursion)

• Talking Business (guest speakers)

• Classroom shopping mall

• Shopping spree

Activity 9 - Needs and wants - Memory Game The teacher begins a continuous story game by saying "today I went to the shop and bought …". The next student must remember the item said by the teacher and then add their own. The student after them must remember the items said previously and also add their own, and so the game continues. Depending upon the age level, class help may be necessary. Highlight how many items were remembered, how many were bought, who remembered more items, etc.?

Encourage students to reflect on the items 'bought' and consider which were needs and which were wants. Continue the discussion to incorporate personal needs and wants, family needs and wants and community needs and wants. Consider how an individual, a family and a community might prioritise, plan and budget accordingly.

• What do we think of first- needs or wants?

• How would a family plan to pay for needs?

• Is it ok to have wants? What influences what we want?

Activity 10 - A trip to the shops Students visit a community store, local council, local business or local community enterprise and are exposed

to real-life scenarios of money exchange and financial management.

Students observe then categorise the types of shops/businesses that exist within the community, the types of

services or products they provide or sell and how they operate. In addition students observe the range of

workers and the specific role they have within the business they visit. Students could consider:

• Which shops focus on essential items?

• Are there shops that only sell items that are nice to have (wants)?

• How do the shops attract customers?

• The shop workers - what are the specific skills that they need to work in this shop/business?

Opportunities exist here for discussion about training for a role, developing expertise and the importance of

preforming the role well. Start to use the word 'job' instead of role and relate this to the jobs of the people they

observed in their excursion to the shops. Consider customer service and the shopping experience for the

customer.

Visiting the local community shops provides the opportunity to explore a range of concepts which include unit

pricing (getting the best value for money spent), product placement and how advertising and gimmicks can

influence choices you make and what you buy.

Knowing Growing Showing

Financial literacy resources for Indigenous students

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Talking business

Invite a local store manager or business owner to speak to the class about their business. Students ask questions to gain an insight into the operation of the store/business. Information gathered here will assist students in establishing their shop/business.

From observations students have made on their trip to the local community store/shops, students formulate a series of questions that could be asked of a guest speaker and will assist them to set up their classroom shop/business

The following questions can be used as a guide. Other questions will depend on the students' level of knowledge, experiences and ideas on the type of shop/business they wish to establish.

Questions could include:

• How does the shop/business work?

• Can shoppers purchase your goods online?

• Does your shop deliver?

• Where does the stock/goods come from?

• How do you know how much to charge?

• How do you get staff?

• Do the staff / workers get paid for what they do?

• How do the staff know when to come to work?

• How does the staff know what to do?

• How many staff do you need?

• What if no one wants to buy things?

• Why do things go on sale?

• Why are items discounted?

Activity 11 - Establishing a classroom shopping mall Using the information gained from the excursion and guest speaker, students begin to plan to create a shopping mall in their classroom. Guide students to decide on the types of shops/businesses in the mall, the items they might sell, or the service they may provide. Students work in groups, with each group establishing a different type of shop or business. Ensure there is a good mix of shops- shops that service needs and wants and those that provide goods or services.

Students work collaboratively to design and build their shop front. They then decide on what role each member of the group will have in establishing and running their shop/business and assign a name and title to their role. Remind students that this is their job and they will earn as they work, relating this to the excursion to the shops and the jobs they observed. You may want to introduce the use of a simple contract stipulating expectations for the 'workers' to sign up to work in their job. This can be simple or more complex according to the skills of the students.

The stock for the shop or business is either made by students, brought from home (e.g. empty and cleaned packets of food/drink), or borrowed from the classroom or school supplies. 'Items' can be sourced and cut out from magazines to simulate the stock.

Once the simulated shops are open for business, students are given a series of items to be found, returned, bartered for and exchanged. Students can draw upon local examples of this process and incorporate the types of family and community based tensions* that may occur. These may include, but are not limited to:

• Underlying issues associated with welfare communities.

• Communal sharing and reciprocal obligations.

• Money for wellbeing.

Note: This is an opportunity to identify Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from within the school and the broader community who may be able to share stories in relation to these matters from a local community perspective and assist teachers in classroom discussion on these and associated matters.

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Financial literacy resources for Indigenous students

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This can lead to discussion on various payment forms (e.g. cash, time payment, lay-by, online etc.) as the class shop/mall continues to operate over a number of weeks or even months. Issues raised during the shopping process can increase in complexity as student knowledge develops. Moral and ethical issues could be presented and resolved by the students.

To enhance the shopping mall activity, include an ATM where students simulate the operation of the machine. This could tie in with the classroom economy and the actual amounts of classroom money the students have in their account. For further information view https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/teaching/moneysmart-schools/moneysmart-schools-in-action#singleton - Learning to bank through role play. Discuss PIN and notion of PIN security and safety.

Shopping basics

With guidance, students participate in a variety of shopping events. They begin with an amount of money and are tasked with finding items, negotiating the transactions, managing the balance and finding the best buys.

Implicit in this ongoing activity is the idea of budgeting, planning, spending wisely and saving the 'money' from the classroom economy to use in the simulated shopping scenarios.

Extension

Include opportunities for students to explore how online shopping works. One of the classroom 'shops' could be virtual and students will shop 'online' either by setting up a website for use within the classroom or a simulated version of online shopping. The virtual shop hosts would need to consider delivery, packaging and marketing just as any of the other shops in the classroom shopping mall. Engage students in considering safe and secure online shopping. Questions could include:

• How do people pay for goods online?

• How do they know they will receive the goods?

• What are the risks with shopping online?

• What are the rights and responsibilities of the shopper / seller in online shopping? Are they different

to shopping in a real environment?

For further information see https://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/

Shopping spree

Using catalogues and flyers (hardcopy or online) students create a list of things they would like to purchase. Teachers could put limitations arounds this activity (e.g. giving the student a total budget or limiting the list to a certain number of items, ensuring students include certain items that may only be available online).

Students can total the costs of their wish list and identify which notes and coins they would need to pay for each item. This activity will reinforce the learning about money that has occurred in previous units (e.g. counting).

Students could then consider which of the items are 'needs' and which are 'wants', and prioritise accordingly.