Grade 4: Financial Literacy Lesson

        Planning a Pet Purchase for the classroom

Learning Objective:
 By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
 Generate strategies for solving a problem involving money amounts to
determine if there is sufficient money to care for a pet. 
 Decide whether it is a good idea to get a pet , given pet care costs and
express their point of view in writing.

Ontario Curriculum Expectations:

F1.1 
Identify various methods of payment that can be used to purchase goods and
services.
F1.2 
Estimate and calculate the cost of transactions involving multiple items priced in
whole dollar amounts, not including sales tax, and the amount of change needed
when payment is made in cash, using mental math.
F1.5 
Describe some ways of determining whether something is reasonably priced and
therefore a good purchase.

Prior Knowledge: Students must be familiar with addition, and subtraction of

money amounts to $10.00.
 Initial familiarity with simple money concepts
 Where do you get money?
 Knowledge about Pets
 Requirements and needs of pets.
 How to take care of pets

Minds On
Class discussion by reviewing the following questions: 
 What is money?
 Where do we get money? 
 How do we know if we have enough money? 
 Read a story about pets, and they should be thinking about pets and the
costs of caring for a pet. 
 Read aloud a book that includes a scene with a pet purchase. 
  Since Syrian hamsters are included on the list of suitable pets for a
classroom. The students examine the costs of caring for a hamster as a
classroom pet. 

Action:
 Students get into groups and discuss the problems with each other. How
much money will they need each month to care for the pet? Once students
understand the problem, they work in pairs to solve the problem and
represent their thinking. 
 Students could determine the cost for two, four, or more months.
 Show a sample cost breakdown of the cost of caring for a pet.

Consolidation:
 Students share how they solved the problem. They get an opportunity to
turn and talk with their partner to consolidate their thinking before sharing
with the class.
 Reflect on the question:
Is it worth having a pet? What are the benefits of pet ownership?

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