Financial Literacy: Christmas Holiday Budget Project

Help your elementary students practice budgeting as they plan for the winter holidays. An excellent thematic math lesson!

Students will have to explain where they will get their shopping money, plan who to shop for, look through fliers or online to find items to buy, and stick to their budgets! This may require adding items up and realizing they have spent too much. There may be trade-offs made during the process, which is a great preview of real life! There is also room to write a reflection after the activity to help stimulate a class discussion about financial literacy and budgeting.

Grades to Use With:

This project is designed to be used in elementary classrooms from grades 2-5. Students will need to be able to add decimal numbers by hand or with a calculator. It could also be used in special education classrooms in the middle years.

Standards:

CCSS4.NBT.B.4

Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.

CCSS5.NBT.B.7

Add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals to hundredths, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used.

CCSSMP4

Model with mathematics. Mathematically proficient students can apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace. In early grades, this might be as simple as writing an addition equation to describe a situation.

If you enjoy this financial literacy lesson, check out others in my store:

Grocery Game: Estimating, Adding and Multiplying Decimals

Create Your Dream Store: Math Project with Decimal Calculations and Budgeting

Financial Literacy: My Budget Project for Elementary Students (Gr 3-6): Fun and Visual

4 page PDF:

Title Page

Student Planning Page

Student Shopping List

Student Reflection