Reading Makes Cent$ is Fun for Kids and Easy for Teachers with Lesson Plan Templates.
Reading Makes Cent$ is a financial literacy reading program with lesson plan templates that is available to K-5 students, librarians, and parents across the state of Virginia. This program provides three engaging books for each school that participates each year. Participating schools are also provided lesson plan templates and age appropriate activities to use with each of the books The objective is to help students understand and apply the following Virginia History and Social Studies Standards of Learning:
- Saving and the importance of budgeting money to buy things in the future
- People make choices because they cannot have everything they want and all choices have an opportunity cost (the next best alternative given up when making a choice)
- Investing in your human capital (a person’s specific knowledge and skills)
- People work at jobs to earn money
Cash Awards Presented Annually to 14 Randomly Selected Student Participants.
Virginia 529 awards 14 randomly selected participating students each year with $529 in their own Invest529 account for college and higher education.
Libraries with Highest Student Participation Win Financial Literacy Book Collection.
Virginia 529 provides one financial literacy book collection to one elementary school library in each region of Virginia which has achieved the highest % of student participation. This four-color hardback book collection is valued at $500. Lesson plan templates and age appropriate activities are included with each book in the set.
YES and Area Rotary Clubs Fund Financial Library Book Collection for Participating Libraries.
YES thinks Reading Makes Cent$ a very effective way for teaching Financial Literacy concepts to elementary students in a fun and engaging way. Because lesson plan templates and age appropriate activities accompany each book, it is easy for any teacher to incorporate into their curriculum. Frustrated that only 7 librarians could win the full set in a given year, YES teamed up with 5 area Rotary Clubs to raise money so that each of the 28 participating elementary librarians in Rockingham County received the full Financial Library Book Collection. Lynne Stover, then serving as the YES funded teacher advocate and consultant, along with YES board members, personally delivered each of the 28 sets to the school librarians.
