Without a solid understanding of money and financial literacy our students would struggle in the real world. Like many maths concepts, this is integral for children to understand in order to successfully participate in society.

So to expand this aspect of their knowledge, we have set up in Room 6 an Australian Dollars monetary themed classroom reward system. We have used specimen of $5, $10, $20, $50, $100 notes and Reward Tokens. We have a classroom display with the Classroom Rewards Store poster and Token Reward posters. Each student is provided with his/her own Reward Money Wallet and Account Balance sheet. As a class, we have decided how many Australian Dollars each reward is worth, and recorded the amount on each poster

Every Friday I hand out ‘money’ to students who show consistency with their tasks, display great efforts in academics, show examples of what is expected in class and reflect the class rules. They lose some of their money if they fail to follow classroom conventions and instructions given by teachers. Students who demonstrate behaviour that is above expectations may receive a rare Golden Ticket for a ‘super’ effort with an accompanying special reward of $20, decided by the class. Students use their Account Balance sheet to record their credits and debits and keep their money in their Wallets.

When students have accumulated the required amount of money for a reward, they exchange their notes for a Reward Token. Students can use their token for their chosen reward only on a Friday. Recently in Term 2, we expanded our “Class Rewards store” where students can use their money to buy stationery and other items. Students can buy only one item per week.

Through this system, students are learning Financial Mathematics. They are learning to make judicious use of Time and money. It has taught them to make wiser choices with the money in hand. Children tend to be more involved with mathematics if lessons are focussed on financial literacy through hands-on activities dealing with real money.

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