The A–Z Of Money – From Account To….

Today I have been working in a school where they have been having a “Money Week”. Tomorrow we will have a visit from some bankers, who will take our numeracy lesson – I am fascinated by the prospect.

One lesson today was to make up a Money Alphabet. The class responded well, suggesting lots of different words

Unsurprisingly, we had many currency words -pound, dollar, penny, euro, franc, kroner, shilling, rupee - and this multi –ethnic class knew which countries still use the franc and the shilling!  I was a surprised by their gambling selection. millionaire, lottery, jackpot, scratchcard, gamble  - but they said these were ways to get a lot of money easily [?!]

We had words about everyday expenditure - bank, bills, tax, joint account, debit card, income, wages, rent, mortgage

And money verbs - spending, earning, saving, giving

And soon our alphabet was almost complete, with at least one word for every letter except X and Z. We chose X-ray when someone remembered that some places use X-ray gadgets to check for the metal strip in banknotes. But Z?

“I can only think of ZIP, I try and keep my purse zipped up to save money” I said

Then one girl piped up “ZAKAH!”  which I thought was a brilliant answer.

Zakah is one of the five pillars of Islam, and is the name for rules about giving charity.

That sparked off another selection -charity, Gift Aid, sponsorship, donations

I noticed that although we had bills, and banker, nobody suggested ‘bonus’- and I do hope this class focuses more on giving than gambling as they get older!

[and special thanks to Jane, without whose recent post, I could not have taught them about the Canadian Maple Syrup Banknotes!]