Budget Planning Fun

Overview

This 60-minute lesson, "Creating a Budget Plan," is lesson 4 of 7 in the "Market Day Mastery" unit for Year 1 students. Building on their prior learning about making products for Market Day, students will explore basic financial literacy by creating a simple, hands-on budget plan for their product. The lesson aligns closely with the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum, focusing on financial mathematics concepts appropriate to Year 1 students, embedding school values and using engaged, hands-on approaches especially suitable for a mixed-ability class with many boys.

Curriculum Alignment

Learning Areas and Strands

Mathematics and Statistics (Te Mātaiaho Maths 0–8, Phase 1):

Financial mathematics: Recognise and order New Zealand coins up to $20, make groups of like denominations, calculate value, make amounts using coins and notes, and represent real financial situations with play money (appropriate to Year 1–2) .

Key Competencies (NZ Curriculum)

Managing Self: Students set goals and plan steps to achieve them by creating budgets for their product.
Relating to Others: Working together and sharing ideas during the budgeting activity.
Participating and Contributing: Contributing to group discussion and decisions about costs and budgeting.
Thinking: Using mathematical reasoning to calculate costs and totals.
Using Language, Symbols, and Text: Reading and writing simple numbers for costs, and verbalising budget plans.

School Values Integration (Ako runga, Manaakitanga, Pono, Whanaungatanga)

Ako runga (Effective learning): Students engage actively in learning through hands-on budgeting activities.
Manaakitanga (Care): Respecting each other’s ideas and helping classmates with their budgets.
Pono (Integrity): Being honest about costs and staying true to their budget plans.
Whanaungatanga (Sense of belonging): Collaborating in pairs or small groups to build their budget plan.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

Identify materials needed to make their Market Day product.
Recognise and use play coins and notes to estimate costs.
Record the cost of each material using numbers.
Calculate the total cost by combining individual item costs.
Explain their budget plan verbally, showing understanding of financial literacy concepts suitable for Year 1.

Lesson Structure

Time	Activity	Description
5 minutes	Welcome and Recap	Briefly review previous lesson's work on Market Day products and what they need to create them.
10 minutes	Introducing Budget Plans	Teacher explains what a budget plan is, using simple language and real examples relevant to Year 1 students. Show play money and basic prices of materials.
15 minutes	Hands-On Budget Planning (Individual or Pairs)	Students list materials needed on a pre-prepared template sheet (picture-supported). Use play money to assign costs and calculate total budget by counting coins/notes together with teachers/helpers.
10 minutes	Practical Cost Grouping Game	'Coin grouping' game: children group play money by denominations (e.g., all $1 coins together) to reinforce recognising and ordering NZ denominations up to $20.
15 minutes	Sharing and Reflecting	Groups share their budget plans with the class, explaining their choices and total cost. The teacher facilitates, reinforcing vocabulary and concepts. Encourage manaakitanga by positive feedback.
5 minutes	Summary and Next Steps	Recap key learning points. Link this budget plan to next lesson (preparing for Market Day sales). Set expectations for students to refine plans at home/in class.

Resources

Play money sets with NZ coins and notes (up to $20)
Budget planning templates with spaces for item pictures, names, and prices (visual aids for Year 1 literacy levels)
Whiteboard and markers for teacher modelling
Material sample items/pictures from students’ Market Day products (e.g., craft supplies, packaging)
Coin grouping mats or labelled containers

Differentiation and Engagement

Visual supports for all budget parts to aid early readers.
Pair work for social learning and peer support.
Active handling of physical coins and notes to engage kinaesthetic learners, especially boys.
Use of simple counting strategies with coin groups to connect with maths prior learning .
Teacher and learning support assistant available to support students needing help with number recognition or calculation.

Assessment and Feedback

Formative Assessment:

Observe students as they count and group coins, and record their budget.
Listen to verbal explanations of budget choices for evidence of financial understanding and use of vocabulary.
Use simple questioning to check understanding: "How much does this cost?" "If you add this, what is the new total?"

Success Criteria:

Student can list materials needed.
Can recognise and name NZ coins/notes used in budget.
Can calculate a total cost using addition or grouping.
Can explain their budget plan in simple terms.

Cultural Responsiveness and School Values

Incorporate local context (Whangarei) when discussing markets or products.
Emphasise whanaungatanga by encouraging collaboration and sharing in planning.
Highlight pono by discussing honesty in budgeting and spending.
Model manaakitanga by valuing every student’s contribution and Ako runga through encouraging persistence and curiosity.

Teacher Notes

Prior knowledge from lessons 1-3 includes understanding product creation and simple money concepts.
Keep explanations concrete, use physical and pictorial examples.
Reinforce key terms: budget, cost, coins, total.
Use storytelling or real-life market scenarios familiar to children to contextualise learning.

This lesson plan offers a tactile, engaging approach to introduce budget planning and financial literacy linked tightly to the New Zealand Curriculum's mathematics financial strand appropriate for Year 1 students. It respects the teacher’s preference for hands-on, boy-friendly learning and promotes the school’s values in a practical, real-world context.

If you would like, I can also help create the budget planning template and coin grouping mats tailored for your students!

Teaching Instructions