Students investigate, “How are negative numbers used when we talk about money?” by creating a dream-purchase mood board that captures their goal and anticipated feelings. Through financial scenarios, they represent credits, debts, and zero; locate, order, and compare rational numbers; use absolute value, ratios, number-line data displays, and coordinate graphs to model savings or debt repayment over time. With input from classmates and parents, students complete weekly progress checks and revise a savings plan or credit-card purchase simulation, including a realistic proposal for paying with an imagined first salary at age 22. They reflect on current money habits and future uses of credit and investing, then present a poster or presentation about their dream purchase at the end-of-year exhibition.

Students will interpret positive and negative rational numbers as credits, savings, debts, and losses, explain the meaning of zero, and locate, compare, and order values on number lines and coordinate planes. They will use ratios, rates, absolute value, four-quadrant graphs, and number-line data displays to analyze savings growth, debt repayment, and distance from a financial goal. Students will collaborate with peers and family members to design, critique, and revise a realistic savings plan or credit-purchase simulation through weekly progress checks. They will communicate their reasoning in a poster or presentation featuring a dream-purchase mood board, payment plan, time-versus-debt graph, and age-22 income proposal while reflecting on current money habits and future credit or investing choices.

Students will create a “Dream Big” mood board showing a desired purchase and the feelings they associate with reaching that goal. They will build either a savings plan or a credit-card purchase simulation using ratios, rates, rational-number lines, and graphs that show savings growth or debt repayment over time, with clear meanings for positive values, negative values, zero, and absolute value. Weekly progress checks will include peer and parent feedback, revisions, and reflections on current money habits and future use of credit cards and investing. The final poster or presentation will combine the mood board, financial plan, data displays or coordinate graphs, and a proposal for funding the purchase at age 22 with a first salary, then be shared in an end-of-year exhibition.

Students create a “Dream Big” mood board featuring a meaningful purchase, its estimated cost, and the feelings they expect when reaching the goal. They examine a fictional bank and credit-card statement, sorting credits, debits, debt, and a zero balance on a shared number line while discussing, “How are negative numbers used when we talk about money?” Students then interview a classmate and a parent or caregiver about saving, borrowing, or investing, without sharing private financial information. They use these insights to choose a savings plan or credit-purchase simulation that will become part of their end-of-year dream-purchase presentation.

Host an end-of-year “Dream Purchase Expo” where students present their mood board, savings or credit-payment plan, time-versus-debt graph, and proposal based on an imagined first salary at age 22. Students explain how positive numbers, negative numbers, zero, rational-number models, rates, and absolute value represent savings, debt, payments, and distance from their goal. Classmates and parents rotate through presentations, ask questions, and offer feedback on each plan’s accuracy and feasibility. Students close with a reflection on how their current money habits may connect to future saving, credit card use, and investing.