Can You Afford a Pet?

Setting the Scene

Brainstorm with your students what pets they have or would like to have and what their concept of money is. You could revisit this second aspect after the students have worked through the activities and financial concepts in The Real Cost of Pets to see if their concept of money has been expanded and clarified.
As a statistics link, the students could collect data and display it using a tally chart, bar graph, or pie graph.
The introductory activities on pages 1–4 involve a lot of talking. If you spread these discussions over more than one session, the students will be able to acquire the financial language as a part of their oral vocabulary before encountering the terms in the text. Whole-class discussion or a think, pair, share approach would be useful for these pages. The big book version of these (and other) pages would be ideal for shared reading.

Activity One

Financial understanding
This activity is crucial to the development of the students’ financial literacy. The more thoroughly it is done, the more the rest of the pages in the book will make sense.
In this activity, Rawinia learns from her mother that families have many things to spend their income on and that there are many considerations to think about before making spending decisions. This helps her to understand about being financially responsible.
The students’ understanding of financial terms could be developed using a “hot-seat” discussion, a word wall (see copymaster), a “group, label, explain” activity, bingo (see the extra-game copymaster), “I have … Who has …?” games (see copymaster), or the game of Loopy (see Numeracy Project material master 6–3).
Another vocabulary game that would work very well for this activity with the whole class is Definition Bingo (see copymaster), especially in mixed-ability groups of four students. For this game, have the students, in their groups, cut out and reassemble the words and their meanings. (Note: The words and meanings are not matched up in the copymaster; see the answers for question 1a for the terms and their correct definitions.) This game is very useful because everyone can play at the same time and you can walk around and challenge the students’ thinking. They will probably do a lot of talking as they justify and question definitions. A stronger member of a group may “think aloud” with weaker members who, through that process, pick up comprehension strategies that they can use to work out which term goes with which definition. In this way, the students will make much stronger conceptual links. They can also get immediate feedback when they compare their finished work with the answers for question 1a.
Encourage your students to use the target vocabulary in everyday discussion. Many School Journal articles and stories that involve animals offer examples of some of these terms, such as “hidden costs”. These stories reinforce vocabulary and help students make links between these terms and their own life experiences.

Activity Two

Financial understanding
In this activity, in which they look at a range of pet-care choices, the students learn about “needs” and “wants”. The viability of the choices they have depends on whether a particular choice is a need or a want, how much they can afford, and the kind of pet they’d like to own. The students learn that people’s decisions differ because they have different preferences and different amounts of income.

Mathematics and statistics
In this activity, the students collect, organise, and analyse information about pet-care costs (using the pet-care costs sheet [see copymaster]). Good decision making comes from gathering the right information and organising it in a meaningful way. As suggested in the Answers section, the students will benefit from checking and comparing their choices with those made by classmates. This may prevent a few problems later in the book when they use these headings and the pet-care costs sheet in other activities, for example, that on page 8.

Activity Three

Financial understanding
In this activity, Rawinia’s class share their experiences. The questions for this activity give your students the opportunity to revisit the financial language they learned earlier and to apply it to their own situations. This knowledge will help them to be aware of what being financially responsible involves.
The students communicate and receive ideas and information when they share their experiences about pets (or other interests), using financial vocabulary.
The reflective questions after Investigation Two focus on the issue of affordability and the impact of unbudgeted expenses.

Investigation One

Financial understanding
This section tells students what direction the rest of the book takes. They are only asked to do the first investigation question (“Your task”). This will give them the opportunity, on a personal level, to start the process of exploring the costs associated with owning an animal in order to learn about establishing a budget and planning for financial well-being.

Mathematics and statistics
The students begin the process of collecting, organising, and analysing information by investigating the cost of feeding their own family’s (or a neighbour’s) pets.

Investigation Two

Financial understanding
In this investigation, the students learn about the need to explore the trade-offs between alternative decisions (opportunity costs) and the risks involved with taking on a classroom pet without good decision making. During this inquiry, they will learn that there is often more to making a decision than just financial considerations.
This investigation engages students in generating, identifying, and assessing opportunities for a classroom pet. This enterprising attribute involves thinking strategies and is important for making successful decisions.

Further investigations and tasks
The students could:
• explore the question “What is a pet?”
• explore cross-cultural differences in regard to what is considered a pet.
• in pairs, survey the neighbourhood to find out what pets are common to the area (and afterwards, discuss why other pets aren’t). As a further link to statistics, they could use a graph to present the information and discuss what it means for the neighbourhood (for example, the need for “doggie poo” containers in public areas such as parks).
• survey students in other classes about what pets they have, or what pets they would like to have, and graph the results.
• investigate the cost of a family pet over the past year (including hidden costs).
• talk to people who work with animals/pets.
• demonstrate the meaning of a financial term, using visual language or visual arts skills.

Social Sciences Links
Achievement objective:
• Understand how people make choices to meet their needs and wants (Social Studies, level 2) Have the students discuss, in pairs or small groups, what needs and wants they or their families have.
• Understand how people make decisions about access to and use of resources (Social Studies, level 3) Discuss with the students what choices the children and their families in Activity Three are making about access to resources and why they need to be able to “afford things” before they can have or use a resource.

Other Cross-curricular Links
English achievement objectives:
• Purposes and audiences: Show some understanding of how to shape texts for different purposes and audiences (Speaking, Writing, and Presenting, level 2)
• Ideas: Select, form, and communicate ideas on a range of topics (Speaking, Writing, and Presenting, level 2)
The students could:
– compose faxes or emails to find out facts or to share information
– use web quests to explore needs of pets
– write a persuasive letter to a variety of audiences
– use a flow chart to show the process of choosing a pet.
Technology achievement objective:
• Brief development: Describe the nature of an intended outcome, explaining how it addresses the need or opportunity. Describe the key attributes that enable development and evaluation of an outcome (Technological Practice, level 3)
The students could design an “enrichment toy” for a caged animal.

Answers

Setting the Scene: Class discussion
Discussion will vary. For example:
• You may realise that it costs animal shelters a lot of money to look after abandoned animals and to find homes for them.
• Small puppies don’t eat much, but they grow very fast and are always hungry.
• Some people abandon kittens because they don’t want the hassle of looking after them or finding new homes for them and they don’t want to (or can’t afford to) pay the costs involved in feeding them as they grow.
• Rabbits need a hutch, food, and looking after.

Activity One
1. a. Practical activity. The words and their definitions are:

Needs	Items you must have
Decision	Selecting a choice
Income	Money you earn from work or other sources
Consequences	What happens because of a decision you make
Wants	What you’d like to have but don’t really need
Trade-off	What you are prepared to give up to get what you want (opportunity cost)
Budget	A plan showing where your income will come from and where you think it will go
Choices	Options you have before making a decision
Debt	What you owe other people or organisations
Savings	Money you put away (for example, in the bank) for use at a later time
Profit	The money you make after you have paid for all your costs
Spending	Paying for goods or services
Costs	Expenses involved in setting up or running a business or an enterprise
Goals	What you want to achieve
Loan	Money that you borrow and have to pay back
Affordability	Having enough money to pay for the goods or services you decide to buy

b. Discussion will vary.
2. Practical activity. See the chart for question 1a.

Activity Two
1. Discussion will vary.
2. Choices may vary. (It’s a good idea to check your choices against those of other classmates to see if you are on the right track because you will need to use items under these headings later. Some choices may fit under more than one colour.)

Activity Three
1. Discussion will vary. Possible answers include:
a. Wants, budget, costs, spending, decision, goals
b. Trade-off, income, affordability
c. Income, costs, budget, spending, decision, consequences
d. Decision, choices, consequences, wants, affordability, trade-off
2. Discussion will vary.

Investigation One
Answers will vary.

Investigation Two
Discussion and outcomes will vary.

Reflective questions
• Discussion will vary. Some people don’t want to have pets because of the money it costs, their lifestyle (if they go away a lot), or health reasons (allergies). Some people really love animals and want as many pets as they can afford. This usually means making decisions about other things they may have to go without.
• Discussion will vary. If the family hasn’t budgeted any money for vet visits and treatment, they may find they haven’t got enough money to pay other bills or to do to something else they had planned, such as having a family outing to the movies.