In this lesson, students use the book, The Berenstain Bears' Mad, Mad, Mad Toy Craze, to learn about spending, collecting, opportunity cost, saving, and speculating.

In this lesson, students read about the cubs' spendthrift ways and how Mama and Papa Bear teach them to earn and save. Students learn about figures of speech, and they create "critter banks" in which they can begin to save.

In this lesson, students learn the importance of credit, how it is used, and compare the advantages and disadvantages of using cash and credit.

In this lesson, students use the book, Four Dollars and Fifty Cents, to discover ways that creditors can obtain payment from reluctant debtors.

In this lesson, students read a story about a young girl named Sara. Sara has always made gifts for her family for special occasions. For Mother's Day, Sara decides she wants to buy a gift for her mother. After reading and discussing the story, students create booklets to illustrate Sara's short-term savings goal and their own short-term savings goal.

After reading The Hundred Penny Box, students compare how people save money in financial institutions. Students analyze the advantages of regular saving and how savings grow with compounding.

In this lesson, students examine spending and saving decisions related to the book, Kermit the Hermit, a crab who wished to repay a poor boy's kindness but couldn't figure out how.

In this lesson, students look at saving and spending decisions in 1944 through the eyes of Molly, a nine-year-old growing up during World War II. The lesson uses Meet Molly, An American Girl, by Valerie Tripp. The book is the first in a series of six books that feature Molly in 1944 America. After reading chapter 1, students complete an activity designed to focus on the reason for Victory gardens in 1944. After chapter 2, students complete "Halloween Opportunities," an activity that stresses the similarity between saving and spending decisions in 1944 and 1998 and that teaches opportunity cost. The last activity, "American Factories Go to War" utilizes the nonfiction excerpt in the back of the book to help students understand the large amount of saving that took place during the war because of consumer good shortages.

In this lesson, students read a book about Matthew Martin who wants a new computer program. He has no savings, and he's in debt to most of his classmates and his parents. His parents share their experiences of buying on credit and getting out of debt. Matthew uses his allowance to pay off his debts and saves until he can buy the computer program. Students learn about the advantages and disadvantages of saving and credit, and they have an opportunity to obtain homework passes on credit.

In this lesson, students use the book, Stone Fox, to understand income, capital, saving, taxes, and credit. Stone Fox tells the story of Little Willy, a ten year old who enters a challenging dog-sled race in hopes of winning money to pay the back taxes on his grandfather's farm.

In this lesson, students read a book about Ryan O'Keefe, a young man who wants a pair of basketball shoes promoted by a basketball star. They learn about spending, saving, opportunity cost, and trade-offs as they study Ryan's decisions throughout the book. Students keep a diary of expenses to track their spending and examine their opportunity costs.