Fun Financial Literacy Middle School | Creating a Budget | Real-Life

Printable and digital (editable Google Slides) file!

What's Included:

In this activity, students will:

• Roll the dice to find out their job, country of residence, and monthly salary
• Choose a house, internet/phone plan, and car according to what they think they can afford based on their salary
• Try to budget through 6 months, facing unexpected gains and losses 
  • They will have many choices about how to spend their money!

• Use the recording sheet to keep track of their monthly expenses
• Record their financial gains and losses as integers (positive / negative #s)

Students will need a die OR you can Google a dice roller if you don’t have one.

This is a great activity for students to truly think about managing and saving money. It is also so fun! Over the years, I've asked my students for input to make the activity relevant and exciting. I keep it updated so that the references are meaningful for students-they realize that they can't always just buy what they want, especially when unexpected costs pop up! As a result, my students have a lot of fun working through the 6-month budgeting scenario.

Mathematics Skills:

-Making predictions

-Addition and subtraction of decimals (with or without a calculator - your choice!)

-Representing positive and negative integers

Looking for more fun, imaginative, and challenging math activities like this one?

Fun Fractions: Check out this FREE student-approved (and LOVED) fractions packet where students get a glimpse into their future.

Fun Algebra: Check out this fun Adventure Math package with an E.L.A connection.

Note to Ontario Teachers: This budgeting activity covers curriculum expectations.

Students will:

- "demonstrate an understanding of addition and subtraction of fractions and integers, and apply a variety of computational strategies to solve problems involving whole numbers and decimal numbers;"

- "solve multi-step problems arising from real-life contexts and involving whole numbers and decimals, using a variety of tools (e.g., concrete materials, drawings, calculators) and strategies (e.g., estimation, algorithms);"