Piggy-Bank Friday: Life Skills Through Financial Literacy (Transcript)

Teacher: What are some of the ways that we can use money?

Student: Spending, investing, sharing and saving.

Elaine: The kids are saving money and they’re setting goals. What do I want to save my money for? And some of the children are actually starting to save for college, which is just incredible.

Krupa: Come on in, hi. Good morning, how are you? Your saving to go to college? It’s so good that you’re saving for it now.

Anthony: If you teach financial literacy without application, or you offer a bank account without the financial literacy, it doesn’t really work. So Bracken has actually combined both, and is teaching financial literacy in the classrooms, sending homework and curriculum home that actually works with parents, and then every Friday, there’s a live bank that goes on here.

Krupa: We come on campus early in the morning and we’re on campus, and we set up a small bank on campus, in a little janitor’s closet.

Teacher: You have fourteen twenty-five, so you’re almost there, okay?

Krupa: They are given a deposit bag at the beginning of the year. The bag includes a deposit book and deposit slips, and that’s to allow them to track and record their weekly deposits.

Student: If I deposit the first time, I would have got to the stamp.

Teacher: Yeah, it’s okay. You just keep depositing, even if it’s just fifty cents or a quarter or a penny that you find. As long as you deposit every Friday, you’ll still make it, okay?

Elaine: The kids can bring in as little as a quarter and deposit it in their account every Friday.

Katie: We always tell them, you can at least find a penny or ask to do a job or see if you can earn some money that you can put in your bank.

Peyton: I am saving for a car or a computer.

Elizabeth: I want to use my money, is by saving it, and so later on when I retire and stuff, I have a lot of money.

Krupa: We stamp them, we help them track their participation and then we reward them with a sticker.

Lance: It gets the kids used to saving money. It gets them looking forward to a goal. You’re not allowed to take the money out until you graduate from Walter Bracken. So they actually get to watch that money grow, even if it’s only a few cents a week or a dollar here, a dollar there.

Krupa: Participation, yeah, super saver.

Teacher: So remember, when we’re thinking about needs and wants, we have to think about who we are, because everybody is different and everyone has different needs. Something that I might need, you might not need.

Elizabeth: It’s like, preparing me. Like, each time she comes in, I learn something new about saving and spending and investing and sharing.

Ethan: They’re teaching life lessons, like how you should know how to save and spend, because when we become an adult and if we’re never taught this, then we’re not going to know what to do.

Teacher: Yes, you get interest, and what is interest?

Student: Interest is when the bank gives you more money for spending.

Elaine: So in the third grade, they focus a lot on wants and needs. What do I want and what do I really need to take care of myself?

Teacher: We’re going to pass out the cards and when I say go, you and your table together pick six things to try and help you survive on the island, all right?

Student: No, no, wait, a saw, yes, to chop down trees to get firewood.

Teacher: So what did your group choose?

Students: Clean water, dried food, matches, medicine, seeds and blankets.

Teacher: Really, really good choices. I think you would survive. Awesome, you all made amazing choices today.

Teacher: How much money do you think you have in total?

Katie: I want my students not to have a ton of debt. I want them to know to have a savings account in case of an emergency. I want them to plan for their retirement and not get caught off guard, and so that they can actually live a comfortable, financially secure life in the future.

Schools That Work

Walter Bracken STEAM Academy Elementary School