free printable checkbook register worksheet

#Free printable checkbook register worksheet full

You then plan to use 1 or 2 class periods near the start of each month for the rest of the school year to continue the project. Students fill out a deposit slip for the amount of their take-home monthly salary, enter the amount in their checkbook registers, and begin to write checks to pay their bills. Once students have determined their expenses, you can begin the paydays. You can then make executive decisions about what is actually affordable and give students a small number of options to choose from (e.g., for vehicles, a Nissan Versa, a Chevy Spark, or a Ford Fiesta for housing, you could give them a monthly limit, etc.) You can always find local or regional sources of ads for housing and cars besides the newspaper.Ī time-saving alternative would be to have students search the classifieds and the Internet for housing, cars, etc., make their choices, and then add up their expenses to see if they can afford them. The Internet is obviously a good source of information too, but the newspaper allows students to search local resources without a using lot of scarce computer resources and time. Prior to starting, you will want to collect a couple weeks’ worth of classified ads from the local newspaper, so that students are looking at ads for actual houses, apartments, and cars, with actual prices, all from local sources. It takes several days to introduce because students need to research a number of expenses: house/apartment rental, car leases/loans, utilities, cell phone plans, etc., etc.

#Free printable checkbook register worksheet full

There is a lot of detailed information in here and teachers should not underestimate the commitment involved in using the full project. This includes an explanation of each of approximately 20 expenses and a discussion of income and deductions (taxes and insurance). The full project involves a 16-page packet for each student. The “hidden curriculum” in this project is always for students to accept the need to allocate scarce resources. These include working with decimal amounts, calculating percentages, and any number of problem-solving skills.Īctually, there is a third purpose. The project has a dual purpose: (1) to provide an interesting and realistic context in which students use math and develop some decision-making and interpersonal abilities, and (2) to practice a number of specific math skills and concepts. If this figure is unrealistic for your student population you can, of course, adjust it in either direction.

The annual $26,000 figure breaks down to $12.50 per hour for a full year of 40-hour weeks. The scenario is that they have completed a curriculum or program that has prepared them to get and carry out a useful full-time job. In this most recent rendition, the students receive an annual salary of $26,000. It is most appropriate for middle school students, though it has been used by high school and even some adult education teachers. The full project is a pretty realistic simulation of personal finance.

It began in the 1980s as an exercise in decimal computation and went on to become a year-long project that we spent about 2 weeks on early in the year, and then revisited for one or two days a month thereafter. I used the checkbook project for about 20 years with students in Grades 5-8.