{"id":310,"date":"2008-10-15T07:12:38","date_gmt":"2008-10-15T12:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/archives\/310"},"modified":"2008-10-15T07:12:38","modified_gmt":"2008-10-15T12:12:38","slug":"teaching-economics-with-childrens-literature-follow-the-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/2008\/10\/15\/teaching-economics-with-childrens-literature-follow-the-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Economics with Children’s Literature: Follow the Money!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Many children keep a piggy bank full of coins in the hopes of saving\u00a0enough money\u00a0for a special purchase. While they understand the concept of saving their money for future purchases, we often rarely think of where the money travels with each following exchange.\u00a0Loreen Leedy’s book Follow the Money!<\/a> personifies coins as their representable presidents as they document their travels with each monetary exchange.<\/p>\n

In her book, Leedy uses a cartoon format\u00a0to demonstrate the exchange paths of currency. Each picture has\u00a0a\u00a0caption at the bottom explaining the process of buying a good and receiving change. In addition, Leedy includes cartoon dialog bubbles for the coins who elaborate upon the facts by telling a fun story of the locations they travel with each purchase.<\/p>\n

Students will gain a sense of how money continuously circulates with every purchase individuals make. Follow the Money!<\/em> also highlights the necessary mathematical operations with each exchange. With every purchase Leedy includes the math off making change.\u00a0The combination of currency information and mathematical calculations will demonstrate the process of\u00a0exchange of money while still interesting and entertaining students with the coin characters’ tale\u00a0of all the places they visit.<\/p>\n

Curriculum Connections<\/strong>
\nFollow the Money!<\/em> can help demonstrate to young readers the concept\u00a0of continuous monetary movement with each purchase.\u00a0 In Virgina this book can correlate with the standard 1.9 which shows that people save money for future purchases. While this book targets a younger reader to demonstrate how one coin is used by many people through multiple exchanges, it can also be used above kindergarten and first grade by using it as an introduction of incorporating money into a math lesson.<\/p>\n

Additional Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n