The Great Depression: A Saving and Spending Game
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Description
Students work together in small groups to make decisions about how to save or spend their money during the Great Depression. They will see what it is like to have a well-paying job and then lose most of their money in the stock market crash of 1929. They will have to find a new job, a place to live (hobo camp or boxcar), and figure out how to provide for their family with very little.
Students will have to subtract their bills from their total amount of money using a spending ledger (provided). Students will encounter obstacles to overcome just like in the real world such as family members getting sick, emergencies, and unexpected bills and bonuses.
This game uses many skills:
MATH- money management, deciding between needs and wants, addition and subtraction
SOCIAL STUDIES- learning about the stock market crash, Great Depression, and New Deal, child labor, Bonnie and Clyde
ART- studying authentic photographs from the time period, such as ones by Dorothea Lange
CITIZENSHIP- working cooperatively as a group, life skills such as sacrifice for family
This NON-EDITABLE PDF download includes:
a sheet of fake money
a Spending Ledger and examples of how to use it
teacher directions