Be $mart Missouri

A Program of the Missouri Council on Economic Education

Be $mart Missouri Sample Activities

What is an activity?  Any activity that the school/community partnership deems educational and beneficial for the students to enhance their study of personal finance.  In order to have an active BSM chapter, several activities per year are recommended.  The nature of the activities is left to the judgment of the local chapter.  The original outline of the program included one school assembly plus an additional activity.  These activities would be scheduled at the discretion of the school.  For example, if Personal Finance is taught only one semester of the school year, the activities would likely take place during that semester but not necessarily.  A short list of potential events are listed below but are in no way exhaustive and local creativity to best meet the needs of the local population is encouraged:

•      Motivational school assemblies with active student participation.

•      Participation in the Missouri Personal Finance Challenge.

•      Create a campaign for personal financial literacy.

•      Celebrate Financial Literacy month during April with guest speakers, field trips, video conferences, poster contests, student
  newspaper articles written by personal finance students, etc.

•      Participate in Teach Children to Save Day in April by personal finance students reading to, presenting skits, conducting sing-along, etc. with a buddy school or class of younger students.

•      Submit public service announcements to local media for the benefit of helping the public understand personal financial concepts such as Pay Yourself First, Save Early/Save Often.

•      Join a local PTA/PTO event to offer personal finance tips by brochures, flyers or presentations to the audience.

•      Offer to host or provide a short program at local school after-school programs.

Whatever event is selected, make it motivational, informative and fun! 

Sample Programs for School Assemblies

Central High School in St. Joseph, MO has completed three successful years participating in the Be $mart Missouri program.  Sherry Readenour, Central’s coordinator, in collaboration with Operation Outreach created assemblies for students that were motivational, engaging, fast paced and above all instructive.  Providing programs that were no more than 30 minutes in and out of the school auditorium was a win-win situation.  Each assembly was held during the seminar period.  The first year the entire student body participated although in order to accommodate this size audience, it was necessary to have the same assembly on two consecutive days.  The decision to include the entire school was based on the introduction of the new course and wanting to include those students who were not required to enroll in the course for graduation.

The following years, only one seminar period was needed to host the assembly which was either for sophomores and juniors or juniors and seniors depending on the semester.  This rationale was based on the fact that the second semester of the senior year most students had completed the course and were not as likely to appreciate the assembly.  Second semester sophomores would soon be enrolling in this course during their junior or senior year.  This would be a good time to peak their interest.  Some helpful assembly notes are outlined below.

• Select a specific theme such as:

  • Saving
  • Credit
  • Money Management
  • Identify Theft
• Have a timed agenda
• Use music and tech as students arrive for the assembly and during when appropriate
• Involve student leaders, cheerleaders, PFC teams, SMG teams, Local Board Members
• Want help?
  • Contact Operation Outreach: outpalmr@greenhills.net
  • Details regarding program contact Sherry Readenour at sherry.readenour@sjsd.k12.mo.us

• Current active programs: Central, Benton, and Lafayette High Schools, St. Joseph, MO

For the convenience of any Be $mart Missouri coordinator, Sherry Readenour has provided the Power Point Presentations used at Central High School accompanied by the detailed agendas for planning.   Note that the song, “Taking Care of Business” was adopted as the theme song for all BSM assemblies at Central High School.  Also each Power Point incorporated school colors. The technology needs are a critical step in planning an assembly.  It cannot be overstated how many times the BSM coordinator needs to confirm availability of equipment and a Tech Person to set up and run the technology before and during each assembly.  Special note should be made to personally do a tech rehearsal assuring that all pieces of hardware and software interface correctly!

Student gifts at each assembly are tied to the overall theme such as saving or credit.  For the “Save Early, Save Often” theme each student received a green (for Personal Finance or Money) wristband with the initials “SESO” along with the name of the organizations that donated the money to purchase the wrist bands.  Another year, the theme was “Credit Counts” and students received a green mechanical pencil labeled with the “Credit Counts” theme in white along with the sponsors for the student gift.

In both instances, the student gift was sponsored by the Hillyard Technical School in St. Joseph because business teachers are vocational teachers and the personal finance courses are taught through the business department.  Another anonymous sponsor paid half of the cost each year.

During the assembly the Local Advisory Board members were seated on stage and introduced.  During the spring 2008 assembly, the regional Missouri Personal Finance Competition winning teams, Stock Market Game teams placing in regional competition during the year and Invest Write winners were also seated on stage and introduced.  The Student Council President for 2007-2008 was the MC of the Quiz Game “Are You Smarter Than A Personal Finance Student?”