 What is it about this piece of paper that makes it so special? It's money. Very good. It's money. Why is this so special? Because of its value. You can spend it. That's what we all like to do, is spend money, right? We need money to have shelter and to have food. Maybe you want to buy something in the future or maybe leave it for college. When I say my allowance, one day I'm going to buy a 2003 teabird. If you woke up tomorrow morning and you heard on the television that all the money in the world disappeared. Education about the role of money. It's an important focus of the Federal Reserve. And now the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is introducing a new program for upper elementary and middle school students. They call it It's All About Money. You've seen this before, right? See, there's something very interesting. I saw Joy experience that. There's something very interesting about this. See what it does to people? We found that everybody's interested in money. We show the money to somebody and we say, how does being near a piece of currency make you feel? It makes kids smile, it gets them animated. They get a little more excited because they can sense the power of money. Simply put, money motivates. It is a topic that interests students and especially at this age group where they're learning to take on their own personal finances a little bit more. I think that it is very beneficial to them. There are a number of different objectives that we have in the program. They learn about the history of money. The vital role that money plays in an economy and how to use money in a very wise and sensible way. What are some of the different things we can do with money? You could buy something for your mother, like for Mother's Day. I wouldn't spend it. I would try to save it. I would save some and give some to tell you. If you need like clothing or food. The New York Fed has created a kit that contains all the elements needed to teach the program. Teachers can use the program as presented or incorporate additional creative activities based on their curriculum and the needs and interests of their students. Boys and girls, today we are going to learn a lot about money. First of all, we're going to see how... The program itself is fantastic. It runs itself. It has all the instruments that you need, the handouts, the script. Very simple plan to follow and extremely beneficial for the students. Now we're going to perform a play in which you'll see how people got the things they needed and wanted before money was invented. And for this play, we require different props. I'll come around with materials for you to use. And I'm going to have you make things such as a crown for the queen, flowers for the flower grower, and a paint brush for the painter. The first morning, Queen Justine called everyone to stand. I think with the play, they learn... We have not always been operating with the system that we have today, which gives them an excellent history lesson at the same time. A barter system? What does that mean? And it also allows them to practice their presentation skills and work as a team putting the play together. Perhaps you can get him to paint my house. When you're acting it out and stuff like that, then you can remember it better because you actually did it. You didn't just read it. Once the students are engaged and participating, they easily grasp the essential concepts of the lesson. In your own words, describe how the barter system worked. You have to have one thing for to get another object. You have to exchange something, right? Good. And it caused some problems, didn't it? Well, if barter didn't work, what did people use in place of barter? And they used forms of money. We wanted students to see some of the problems with the use of that kind of money. For example, some people use cattle as money. Can anyone tell me a problem by using cattle? One thing is that cattle are too heavy to carry around as money. Right. They'd be really hard to carry around in your wallet, wouldn't they? Want to touch my money, pet my money? Okay, as my money. We know that kids want to be involved with manipulatives. So I think if you can't bring into class something that resembles that cow or even have the kids try to design something like that, or bring in a model of a fish and have them see it. Let's say we're walking on the way to the store. You have eight fishes sticking out of your pocket. I got twelve. I got them. I think to some degree you want to get that real aspect to it. And so they can answer best that question that we ask. How would our lives be different if we tried to use this as currency, as opposed to the kinds of currency that we use now? The lesson moves from the history of money and the barter system to modern forms of currency used around the world today. This is a picture of a very famous French general and French political leader named Napoleon Bonaparte. I saw that students can learn a lot about the cultures of people by looking at their money. For example, some other countries have working people. They have poets. They have scientists. In the background, there was a person working, like cooking, and there was another person in the front with a hat on. And it didn't really look like money. It looked like a picture. It's a real good idea to have an exercise in which you could have kids design their own currency. And when you ask who should be on currency, you're really saying, who do we value? What kinds of actions do we value on the part of people? I would put my grandma because she's a big nurse in a hospital. I'd say they could put your face on it if you did something important, like maybe save the world. We're doing some detective work now, and I would like you to tell me what is wrong with this $1 bill. It says the United States of acaria. Acaria? What is that word? It's America backwards. Correct. Very good. Stop and counterfeit is a way to preserve the value of our money, but it also, it's a fun exercise. If it was a $1 bill, George Washington would be there instead of Abraham Lincoln. It has the 11 number on the top and the one number on the bottom. Right. Where that eagle is in the picture, there's supposed to be a pyramid there. It says let's rock and roll, even though it's supposed to be in God we trust. They actually had fun, a lot of fun, trying to be the detectives and a secret service agent for the day. At like a supermarket, the guy's always checking the money. He shows it up to the light, and I'm always like, why is he doing that? So, I don't know why. The lesson includes the practical aspects of money, like budgeting, that allow teachers to teach personal finance as well as economics. You are given a budget of $50 for the month. It is now up to you to decide where you'd like to spend or put that money. Make sure that when you have your amounts in the different boxes that it all adds up to $50. At the earliest age, you want kids to learn something about budgeting and realizing how important that is to helping you preserve your wealth. It goes along promoting our goal of financial literacy. Now that you've completed the activity, I would like to find out from you where you put your money. I donated most of my money to food. Okay. For lunch? Yeah. I spent most of my money on clothing. Okay, did anyone put any of the money in the savings category? Now, I see a number of hands up, which is excellent. Tell me why it's important to put money in the savings category. Like, if you need more money for like next month or the month after that. You want to start your own family and buy your own house. You can use it, the money that you probably saved up. The program is an excellent vehicle for interdisciplinary instruction that can be customized and expanded for any classroom curriculum. Teachers have already given us a number of ideas how they might use the kit. For example, some said, gee, wouldn't it be a great idea if we could use these exercises about money to teach kids about fractions? And other people would say, I'd like to add on an exercise that might have kids do some reading about societies in which different kinds of currency is because one of our goals are multicultural goals, and that is see what we can learn about a people's culture from studying their money. So I think that anyone by watching how engaged the kids are very inspired to say, gee, I can do that easily. The students had a fabulous time with the lesson. They remained focused the entire time. Their motivation brought an energy into the classroom. So it was definitely a pleasure to teach the lesson and to see the students that excited about it. I think the favorite part was doing the detective thing. I think it was amazing that they only used barter because they had to go through all these steps that were almost impossible. I think that if other students get to do all the activities, they'll like it because we did so many different things. We had to play and then we did the budgeting activity. It was so many different things. Thank you.