Use the following 5-day plan to help students conduct this week's Internet inquiry
activity on using money wisely. Remind students to follow classroom rules when
using the Internet.
Identify Questions Discuss the lesson focus question: How can we use money wisely? Brainstorm ideas for specific inquiry questions about budgeting your money. For example, students might want to find out ways to make their allowance last longer or save money to buy a particular item. Have students work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to write an inquiry question they want to answer.
Navigate/Search Explain how to use student-friendly search engines. Using a child-oriented search engine will avoid the many budget-related Web sites created for adults. Encourage students to read descriptions of Web sites. This will help students identify helpful and credible Web sites to visit.
Analyze Students will explore the Web sites they identified on Day 2. Tell them to explore each site for information that helps answer their inquiry questions. Students should analyze information for usefulness. They can print out and highlight relevant information or take notes about it.
Synthesize Have students synthesize information from Day 3. Remind them that when they synthesize, they combine relevant ideas and information from different sources to develop an answer to their inquiry questions.
Communicate Have students share their inquiry results. They can use a word processing program to create a table that shows the ways they can budget their money.