Use grocery shopping to teach about making a budget. Set up a classroom store with play food and empty food containers, attaching a price to each: For younger students, use whole number amounts. Explain they have $50 to spend on groceries, and help them make a shopping list. Encourage students to only purchase items that are on their list, then ring up their purchases. Offer a prize to the student whose total is closest to $50.
Teach students about the importance of saving money when making purchases. Create a school store with items such as notebooks, stickers, toys and tickets for a free-homework pass or extra recess, and price each item. Give students an allowance of $2 per day of play money. Encourage them to determine how long they must save their money to purchase various items.
Help students understand the difference between needing items and those that aren't necessities, recommends the website Family Education. Write the words "need" and "want" on the blackboard. Explain that items like food, rent and electricity are necessities because they are needed for survival, while a new toy is not. Encourage them to think of additional items to place in each column. Talk about the importance of using money to purchase items in the "need" list before the "want" list.
Teach the value of using coupons to save money. Create simple coupons for items in the class store and make copies. Give a sheet of coupons to each child, along with the class play-money allowance. Encourage cutting out coupons for the planned purchases, then have them make a shopping list. Ask them to figure out the savings with the coupons.