Great lesson to integrate with Economics

Our third grade teachers teach an Econ unit. I start the library lesson by sharing money themed books like The Lemonade War, Lunch Money, How to Get Fabulously Rich, and The Get Rich Quick Club, as well as some non-fiction titles. I usually read a chapter from TGRQC to the class.

Then, we proceed to the tables for the second part of the lesson. We discuss what a search engine is. Then, I explain that Google has no brain and cannot think. The kids laugh when I tell them Google is stupid. What I am trying to stress is that THEY have to use their brains, because Google doesn't have one. We practice "talking like a caveman" to Google----telling Google what we need by giving it keywords instead of long questions. Then, I give the students 4 money themed questions. An example is "Which president's picture appears on the $100,000 bill?" They must first highlight the most important words to "tell" Google : $100,000 bill president. I then model a Cached search, which color codes their results for them. They can locate their answer by scanning the pages for the correct color combinations.

Once the guided lesson is complete. The students highlight keywords for the other three questions. They then use Google to try to answer the questions. For each correct answer they find, they get to pull a bill out of the money box (a tissue box filled with fake money of every denomination). The team that wins, is the team with the highest amount of money at the end. The kids love that the game combines searching skills with a little bit of luck. They are so excited when they get to reach into the money box! This lesson is always a big hit, and the students really do use the techniques I've modeled to find their answers.