HOW WE invest

As part of our Junior School’s financial literacy program, our fourth graders practice wise money management through immersive classroom exercises in which they earn a fictional weekly salary. Using ledgers, students apply their math skills by subtracting each week’s debits, such as desk rental, taxes and health care (nurse visits), and adding credits for completed homework and good deeds.

In the second half of the program, students create an original product to sell at two on-campus marketplace events. They determine their product’s pricing by calculating expenses and projected sales, with the aim of returning a profit. To increase sales, they develop advertisements promoting their product’s benefits and learn to persuade their “customers” one-on-one, sharpening their communication skills along the way.

By participating in a hands-on simulation, our fourth graders appreciate the cause-and-effect relationship of financial decisions in the safety of a low-stakes, educational environment. Throughout the program, students gain valuable lessons in marketing, sales and economics that will benefit them in future math and business courses as well as life after school.