For an economics lesson, write down various jobs on scraps of paper, such as engineer, teacher, janitor, astronaut, store clerk, small business owner and stay-at-home parent. Make sure there is at least one career for each student and have them randomly select a career out of a hat with no trading allowed. Come up with a fictitious figure for the income of each career, making it an easy number like $10, $20 or $50. Each week, pay the students their income in fake money. Then teach students the meaning of paying bills for groceries, cable, car, mortgage and so forth. Students should keep a journal to show how well they can balance their books and keep up to date with bills. If they miss a payment, make sure a late fee is tacked on in the next month's bill. At the end of the year, see who has managed their money the wisest.
At the beginning of the year, give each student $50 worth of fake money that you can make using a color printer and a laminating machine. Then, throughout the year have each student earn more money (in denominations of $10, $20 and $50) for various activities or through achieving perfect marks on tests. At the end of the year or term, have students bring something nice from home that would otherwise be given away (such as an old toy), and hold an auction. This will teach children the value of money and how hard they have to work to buy something they want.
This activity can be started off with a simple supply and demand lecture. Then, have students take out one item from their desk, which could be a pencil, eraser, textbook or something similar, and price what they think the item is worth according to how many of that item there are in the class. They should label the item accordingly. Next, have students walk around the classroom and see what things are priced at and which they would chose to buy. For instance, if one pencil is priced at $1 and two desks down a similar pencil is priced for 10 cents, students will be given an example of supply and demand. Children will learn how prices are made when there's a high or low supply of a common item and how demand results from it.
Create a worksheet with different columns and rows; in one column, draw a picture of a small item (food for instance) and in the other write down a price, such as 75 cents. Have students draw how many coins it would take to make 75 cents in this row. You should also provide them with an example of what the coins look like in real-life denominations by drawing a circle with a big 5-cents sign written inside it. Then, to correct the worksheets draw each answer on the board with the students' help. This worksheet teaches children to count money.