Kent Place - Lessons K through 12

Students K-12 deepen their financial literacy through the school's curriculum. Starting in kindergarten, students begin to learn coin names and money values. They engage in a money exchange game, build and operate a store, price food, and ope...

Kent Place - Lessons K through 12

Students K-12 deepen their financial literacy through the school's curriculum. Starting in kindergarten, students begin to learn coin names and money values. They engage in a money exchange game, build and operate a store, price food, and operate cash registers. They build on this knowledge through fifth grade, during which time they learn how to apply mathematical skills like multiplying, estimating, and finding fractions to monetary concepts.

 

In Middle School, students learn about economic systems, free markets, currency (e.g., cash, checks, debit and credit cards), the business cycle, supply and demand, scarcity, the inequality of world wealth, tax calculations, investments, interest, and banking procedures.

 

In Upper School, students may take an advanced placement economics course, where they can explore microeconomic and macroeconomic principles, study the ideas of important economic thinkers, immerse themselves in the accomplishments of entrepreneurs, and analyze current financial news. Within this course, they track and graph data on the Dow Industrial Average, the NASDAQ, the GDP, unemployment rates, the CPI, and consumer confidence. Each day, they also examine articles from their online subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal, while also maintaining economic diaries, through which they relate economic concepts to financial articles and their own everyday activities.

 

They also complete a research project focused on specific economic ideas, and they engage in the NCEE/SIA stock market competition, for which they create a portfolio and develop reports on their stock investigations. Each student also has the opportunity to visit the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where she can speak with specialists and observe trading firsthand.

 

Kent Place faculty also participate in community outreach opportunities around money and finance, and Kent Place parents often lend their expertise in the field to students and members of the school community throughout the school year.