Financial Literacy Resources
Creative lessons and resources teaching financial literacy to youth K-12.
Paw Prints to Learning
Teach young people about animal welfare and how they CAN make a difference in animals' lives.
Activity
At-a-Glance
Time:
1 hour
Materials:
- Chart paper
- Markers
- Soft music (that youth would enjoy!)
Physical Setting:
Spacious room, good light, comfortable, relaxed setting
Purpose:
- To introduce the participants to the process of “envisioning.”
- To use this process to dream about an ideal community.
Objectives:
Your mayor has come to you and asked you to take full responsibility for a complete make-over of the town. “Sky’s the Limit!” Close your eyes and begin to see what the city would look like. There are parks with lots of activities for kids, like water slides and skateboard courses. There are malls right downtown and a special area for youth to congregate without adults in the way. Look at the people: What are they doing? What do they look like? Are they smiling? Why? Take a walk by the high school. What’s going on in there? Would you like to be a part of it? What are the teachers and administrators doing?
Now you have arrived at your home. You walk in the front door. What do you hope to see?”
On a sheet of paper write down 20 things you would like to see in your community.
Activity:
- Ask participants to write down their wishes for their community(Any number). Pair participants and ask them to share these wishes.
- Ask each pair to discuss the thoughts and observations in each other’s vision.
- Ask pairs to join with the next twosome and compare visions. Ask if they see similarities? If they do, ask them to write them on a piece of paper to share with the large group. Put at least two shared ideas on the paper.
Processing:
Bring group back together and ask participants to report on the common threads in the visions. Encourage discussion about what these mean to the community.
a) Does your community have any of these now?
b) What changes would happen if some of your visions were put in place?
Variations/Options:
- Lead an imaginary walk saying, “It’s early morning in (your city). The year is 2015. You awake early and no one else in the house is up yet. Feeling excited as the sun rises on a beautiful day, you decide to go for a walk. You dress quickly and set off. You go out the front door and breathe deeply taking in the town you love. As you walk down the street, you reflect on the people in your neighborhood (pause). You think about their upcoming day at work (pause).
“You think of the children and how school has changed for the better since you were in school (pause). You think about how problems that worried you at their age are now solved (pause).
“As you near a shopping area, you note the stores now in (your city) (pause). Looking at windows, you notice a poster. It’s about an upcoming event and you stop to read it (pause). You pass more businesses and think about how some are new (pause), some are the same (pause) and some have changed (pause). You come to a building of which you are especially proud (pause). You come to a park. You pause and look around. You think of who will use the park and how (pause). You see a monument to recent achievements in (your city). You stop and read the inscription and reflect on its meaning (pause). As you turn to go home, you meet two high school students you know as neighbors. They tell you they just finished a Youth As Trustees workshop and your name was put on a timeline of trustee leaders. One of the students wrote you a letter of appreciation for your work in (your city). You read it (pause).”
- Follow the same questions and processing version of the activity.