Planning and preparation

Begin planning your classroom economy before the school year starts.

• Choose the jobs and responsibilities you will assign to your students, and create lists of bonuses and fines that will be used in your classroom.
• Prepare the materials you will need for the classroom economy activities. You can download and print the materials or order a free kit.
• Begin to gather rewards for students to purchase at auctions.

Allow 2 to 3 hours to choose jobs, bonuses, and fines, and an additional 2 to 3 hours to prepare all of the materials.

Introductory activities

On the first day of school, introduce your students to the classroom economy. Approximately a week after the introduction, assign jobs to students and provide short training sessions.

Allow 2 to 3 hours of class time to complete these activities. Keep in mind, this time does not need to be taken from your curriculum time because it can replace time that you would otherwise spend explaining your class rules.

Ongoing activities

Every month students earn paychecks and bonus money, pay fines, pay rent for their desks, and purchase prizes at auctions, all with classroom economy currency. Teachers typically have used two strategies to schedule these activities: You can conduct all of them on the same day, or spread them out over the course of the month.

Allow 2 to 4 hours per month to complete these activities. Because students will become more efficient at banking as the year progresses, we encourage you to have students bank during transition periods, such as at the beginning and end of the day. You may also allow students to complete classroom economy activities when they finish curriculum materials early.

Year-end wrap-up

Bring the classroom economy program to an end with a discussion and a chance to reflect. Distribute certificates to highlight student successes.

Allow approximately 1 hour for the year-end wrap-up.