Celebrating Money-Smart Children and Community Efforts
Learning important habits and skills at a young age helps build positive lifelong behaviors. A strong understanding of finances sets students on an early track to personal success. Now, a set of powerful resources are available to educators that helps them integrate financial literacy into instruction as early as Kindergarten, ensuring all students get started early on building healthy financial habits.
Cha-Ching™ Money Smart Kids, developed by Jackson Charitable Foundation with Discovery Education, supports K-6 students in honing their financial literacy skills by preparing them to make informed decisions about money. Students are taken through scenarios with the Cha-Ching™ Band in energetic music videos that teach about earning, spending, saving, and donating. Complementing the videos are engaging lesson plans and activities for parents and teachers to promote continued learning in any environment. Through all the Cha-Ching™ resources, children are taught to use money wisely and to put their goals ahead of impulses, steering them toward responsible financial decision-making.
Cha-Ching™ Money Smart Kids takes learning beyond the classroom to involve communities in the effort to engage more students in understanding the true value of money. Every year one committed school wins a prize package to further support their efforts to improve financial literacy. The public participates by nominating and voting daily for their school online. The winning school receives:
- $10,000 to improve financial literacy across their student body.
- $1,000 to donate to a charity of their choice to instill the importance of philanthropy.
- A fun financial literacy event at their school hosted by Discovery Education.
The winning school for the 5th Annual Cha-Ching™ Money Smart Kids Contest is Trinity Lutheran in Campbellsport, WI. They will use their winning prize to introduce students to new platforms for financial literacy—including field trips, guest speakers, and new computers to access online resources. Trinity Lutheran will also be donating the $1,000 gift to USA Patriots, an organization that unites veteran amputees through sport. Read more about the winning school’s plans to use the prize here.
A virtual event with Trinity Lutheran, held on October 12, 2021, brought together students and teachers to discuss the four pillars of financial education – earn, spend, save, and donate. Students were engaged in hands-on activities and had the chance to engage more deeply in the Cha-Ching™ lessons while educators received additional resources to improve financial literacy in the classroom. Students were also surprised over Zoom with the announcement that they won the Cha-Ching™ Money Smart Kids Contest and $10k prize.
"As a small parochial school, we often miss out on grants and donations that are awarded based on school population. The Cha-Ching™ Money Smart Kids Contest money we received is a shot in the educational arm that will enable us to access virtual programming in ways that were impossible up to this point. How awesome!” said David Wege, Principal of Trinity Lutheran.
Thank you to the Campbellsport community for helping Trinity Lutheran receive this opportunity. To participate in next year’s contest, go to the contest page in March, nominate your school, and get the entire community voting! Until then, check out the no-cost resources available for educators everywhere on the Cha-Ching™ Money Smart Kids website.
