Dollars and Sense

Josef Kaufhold: 3rd Grade Reading

.
Rationale/ Purpose:
Students need to learn to read so that they may eventually read to learn new information
that interests them. Students need to be able to understand the cause and effect
relationship that governs their behaviors. Students need to understand sequence of story
to learn cause and effect from the past to actively improve their future. They need to be
able to understand how spending money on one item will effect their ability to purchase a
future item. Students need to learn to save and be able to delay their gratification.
Students as functioning persons in this world need to be able to properly count change,
and be familiar with money and how to use it.

Prior Knowledge:
Students will be familiar with the story of Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday.
They will have read it once and worked on basic understanding of the sequence and
vocabulary used in the story. Students will be familiar with money, quarter, nickels, and
dimes, and basics of counting. They will be less comfortable with money subtraction.
Students will be superficially aware of cause and effect and unable to make direct
connections to the effects of their decisions.

Objectives:
1. Students will understand the cause and effect of Alexander’s spending and relate
it to their lives.
2. Students will be able to identify the events, characters, setting, problem/solution,
and sequence of the story Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday
3. Students will be able to subtract change (nickels, dimes, pennies)
4. Students will create a visual, acting, and verbal definitions of the vocabulary and
will apply these to their knowledge

Assessment:
1. Students will identify the cause and effect through Alexander’s spending habits.
2. Students will create a human timeline to identify sequencing and events.
3. Students will count from 100-0 by subtracting the amount Alexander spends and
recording the data.
4. Students will create and share sentences applying their use of the vocabulary
words.

Hook:
Make a Move: Students will stand across from one another and as a class, create action,
gesture, symbols, and elect their favorite to remember their vocabulary words.
Activities:
Vocabulary:
Make a Move- Students will stand across from one another and as a class create
symbols to remember their vocabulary words.
Pictionary- students will come up with symbols on their white boards to define
their vocabulary.
Application- Students will “fill in the blank” on their own white boards about
sentences I read.

Comprehension:
Money, Cause and Effect, and Story Sequencing- While students work in groups
one student (writer) will keep track of Alexander’s spending, while two students (readers)
alternate jobs reading through the story. The students will identify the sequence in which
Alexander spends money by labeling each purchase with a number.
Questions: How much money did Alexander spend (cause) and what did he buy (effect)
Human Timeline- Using the sequencing from the first activity students will line
up as a timeline filling in the blanks in the following sentence.
“Then, Alexander spent _________ (nickels, dimes, pennies) on _____________

Conclusion/Review:
Vocabulary Race- Students will work in threes to become the first to write the definition,
draw the symbol, and make the gesture.