Question of the Day

"Teacher, is it true that in America there are bills for 4000€?

No, Nicolas, I'm afraid we stopped using those 4000€ bills a couple of decades ago...

I never would have imagined that a quick little time-killing activity...err... carefully-prepared lesson about American money would have been such a hit and would have provoked such an array of good, silly and strange questions. I did this only with my 4th-graders, because they needed something to fill the white space in their lesson plan for the week, when my other classes have plenty to do. I had planned to do something about le dollar, as they call it, and so made sure to bring a "sample" of each denomination $1-$20, and the cents. They loved passing them around and reading where "United States of America" is printed on each one. They knew the faces were presidents, and some even could identify George Washington and knew he was the first president (after one highly amusing, misguided "the king of America?" guess).

And the one question to be repeated multiple times in each class?

"Are they real?"
Yes.
"Really real?"
Yes.
"Wow..."

I think I gained some "cool" points today without even trying!