MoneyIsland: Fun and Games
Raja’s Wonder
Short and Long Term Goals
Directions: The following lesson plan may be used by parents, volunteers,
or professional educators to supplement or substitute the skills introduced,
assessed, and applied in the second segmented portion of MoneyIsland.
Objective
Students will be able to set short term, medium term, and long
term financial goals and identify and write the action steps
necessary to achieve those goals.
Jump$tart Knowledge Statements
(4th & 8th Grade Levels)
• Systematic decision making can help people make money choices.
•Financial choices that people make have benefits, costs, and future
consequencest.
Materials & Set-Up
• Blank paper for warm-up
• Writing Utensil
•Examples for Presentation on handouts, Overheads, Smartboard,
website…
• Six pieces of blank paper per student for Assessment
• Markers for Illustrations in Assessment
• Journals or blank paper for journal entries in wrap up.
Game Screenshot: The Raja explains the importance of achieving
a goal and setting deadlines.
Jump$tart Standards
(4th & 8th Grade Levels)
Financial Responsibility & Decision Making
Standard 1: Take responsibility for financial decisions
•Identify ways to be a financially responsible young adult
•Give examples of the benefits of financial responsibility
and the costs of financial irresponsibility
Standard 4: Make financial decisions by systematically
considering alternatives and consequences.
•Set measurable short- and medium-term financial goals.
• Prioritize personal financial goals.
• Evaluate the results of a financial decision.
•Use a financial or online calculator to determine the cost
of achieving a medium-term goal.
•Apply systematic decision making to a medium-term goal
Planning and Money Management
Standard 1: Develop a plan for spending and saving
•Give examples of household expense categories and
sources of income
Standard 4: Apply consumer skills to purchase decisions
•Explain the relationship between spending practices and
achieving financial goals.
Standard 6: Develop a personal financial plan
• Give examples of household assets
Saving and Investing
Standard 1: Discuss how saving applies to financial well being
•Describe the advantages and disadvantages of saving for
short- and medium-term goals
Lesson Plan
1
Procedure
Warm-Up
Off-Line: The teacher hands the students a piece of blank
paper and a writing utensil. The teacher asks the students to
write one thing that they would like to have for which it would
take a short amount (weeks to months) to save, one thing
that they would like to have for which it would take a medium
amount of time to save (months to a couple of years) and
one thing that they would like to have that for which it would
take a long amount of time to save (many years).
Key Terms
•
Financial Goal: A financial desire that a person
wants to achieve.
•Action Steps: Actions that can help ensure that a
goal will be achieved.
Presentation
Off-Line: The teacher presents the following examples on a handout, overhead, Smartboard, or website.
Juana wants to buy a skateboard. Because buying the skateboard is something she wants and buying the skateboard
is related to money, this is a financial goal. It is spring now, and Juana wants to own the skateboard by summer.
Since there a short amount of time between spring and summer. This is a short-term financial goal.
To be able to afford the skateboard, Juana needs to make some money. Juana is 11, so she can’t get a job at a
company. She asks her parents if there is a way that she can make money around the house. Her parents say that
they have some filing that needs to get done and they will pay her $10 for every hour of filing she does. Juana already
has $50 and the skateboard is $90, so Juana knows she will have to make $40. This means she will have to commit 4
hours to filing to afford the skateboard. Over the next few weeks, Juana files for four hours, gets the money she needs
and buys the skateboard. She has achieved her short-term financial goal.
If Juana had been trying to save up for a $600 laptop, this would have been a medium-term financial goal because
Juana would have had to work longer (60 hours over a period of weeks or months) and save more money to achieve
her financial goal.
If Juana had been trying to save up for a $1,900 trip to Europe after she graduates 8th grade, this would have been
a long-term financial goal because Juana would have had to work much longer (190 hours over years) to save this
amount. This is also a long term financial goal because the trip is in 8th grade and Juana is in 5th grade now.
Assessment
Off-Line: Students receive six pieces of paper. On two of the papers is written “Short-term goal”. On two of the
papers is written “Medium-term goal”. On two of the papers is written “Long-term goal”.
On one of the short-term goal papers, the students should write their goal that they identified during the warm-up.
Then, students should write a series of action steps following the model about Juana presented in the mini-lesson.
Students should access this model as a guide when creating their action steps for their personal short-term financial
goal. Students should then use the second “Short-term goal” paper to illustrate their goal and the action steps they
wrote down.
The students should repeat these steps for “medium-term” goals and “long-term” goals. The teacher should circulate
and correct actions steps that are not constructive, missing an antecedent step, or unrelated to the goal. Students
should end with three pairs of goals. The teacher should gain assessment data from this that shows whether the
students can differentiate between short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals and if they can set logical action
steps to try to achieve these goals.
Students should then present their goals, action steps, and illustrations to the group.
Lesson Plan
2
Application
MoneyIsland.com: In the MoneyIsland online world, your student(s) may play the “Raja’s Wonder” game where they
can set financial and time goals about building “Raja’s Wonder”, try to build the “wonder” in the game, and then reset
their time goals based upon how much money they have, their new knowledge of what that money can buy, and how
much time it took to build part of “Raja’s Wonder”. Along the way, your student(s) will answer questions about financial
goal setting that further help them to apply their goals.
Wrap-Up
Off-Line: Students write a journal entry where they reflect on how the knowledge they gained from the Presentation
and Assessment helped them to apply their knowledge in Raja’s Wonder.
The teacher may choose students to share select journal entries.
Lesson Plan
3