Thursday 17 July 2008

Practical ways to develop money skills

The most effective way to develop money skills when working with students with learning difficulties is to make it practical.
Try to create as many opportunities as possible for handling money:
Collecting money from students
When you collect money in from students don't accept it in an envelope.Get them to open it up and give it to you.
Make one of the students responsible for collecting in the money. They can use a photo or symbol names list to help them.
Going for a drink
When you go for a drink in the college restaurant or in to town ensure everyone buys their drink themselves.
If you make a drink in the classroom start a coffee fund.Everyone can be involved in collecting and counting the fund.
Shopping
Go shopping for others. Use money bags and symbol/picture shopping lists. Limit the list to 1/2 items.Some students benefit from buying the same thing each week.After a few weeks the students can find and pay for their items independently with the staff watching from a safe distance.Estimate before you go shopping . Look at receipts .When you get back count the change.
Charity Events
Not only does it fit in with Every Student Matters but its a great opportunity for more money handling. Raise money for :

Children in Need (see a good example here )


BBC Children in Need The 2008 BBC Children in Need Appeal will take place on Friday 14 November 2008.


Shelterbox click here for an example

of students raising money for this project.




Hearing Dogs for the Deaf click here for an example of students raising money for this project.

Comic Relief (Red Nose Day will be Friday 13 March 2009) click here to visit the site


Sports Relief(view the website) usually takes place in March.






Stop for Tea Have afternoon tea for the NSPCC.


Run regular Fayres:
Autumn, Christmas, Valentine,Easter,Spring and finally through to summer. They encourage inclusivity and help raise the profile of the department.

Enterprise projects




Shoe cleaning, bookstall,Christmas cards, sandwich making,run a cafe, organise a lending library (charge for the loan of DVDs )



Sunday 6 July 2008

Managing Money

For many students learning to find and use a £1.00 coin is the most important step to handling money independently .This does not require knowledge about all the other coins and their value but once students have this skill here are some ideas for developing money handling skills further:
Money skills at
Milestone 7 and Milestone 8 are about recognising coins and notes. At Entry 1 students are asked to know the value of coins and notes.
Developing coin recognition is best done through lots of handling money but here are a few other things to help vary learning styles



Naming coins and recognition by the shape using the theme of a Vending machine from the Learning Portal.
Interactive Computer Activity needs sound .Student should be able to use a mouse. Self Checking .

































Make Bingo cards using the small coins from the printable sheets at Senteacher.org
They also have large coins which can be printed in colour and laminated .Use these to help the Bingo game or use them in a Target Game where you have to throw a bean bag on to coins.This can be used to develop understanding of the value of coins as well as coin recognition.













In the Milestone 8 number
resource section at Skills workshop.

use the set of resources adapted from Entry 1 Skills for Life materials .It uses money to teach number skills such as more /less/the same. There is also a number recognition page based around vending machines which would tie in with the learning portal game mentioned above.









At Entry 1 you can use the Skills for Life materials

Entry 1 unit 2 .An excellent resource. Lots of colour pictures .













Keeping money safe and looking after your own money is another important area to explore with students with a learning disability.If you are following Edexcel Managing Money at Entry 1 and 2 these will be useful










Ben visiting a cafe and spending his

own money . View this on the excellent

MENCAP website














It also has links to Being in Control a booklet

from Enable which may be too advanced for

some (entry 2) to use as a whole but has great

illustrations and information on banks and budgeting.




When you are exploring banks
you could use the
Interactive ATM











or order a DVD from Speak up on Opening a Bank account .

You can view a sample on the website before you buy.