financial literacy, children’s theater, Carousel of Money, innovative educational method

The lesson-performance is an exceptionally effective and engaging tool for influence, engagement, and learning. It was piloted for the first time in the field of financial literacy by the Institute for Financial Literacy, and the results have been more than impressive.

Through this approach, students move from being observers and listeners to becoming active participants and co-creators, which helps them more easily grasp knowledge related to key financial concepts. The lesson-performance “Carousel of Money” has been presented with great success on theater stages more than ten times in different cities across the country. At the same time, these lessons—short theatrical performances—have also been widely used in classrooms.

A guide has been developed for delivering four lesson-performances that are narratively and thematically interconnected. They represent financial literacy lessons that follow and enrich the thematic content of the financial workshops “About Money and Other Important Things: First Steps.” The theatrical performance is suitable for children aged five to thirteen. It is also a good option for the performance to be staged by older children for an audience of younger ones.

The content of each lesson-script is presented in text form, which the teacher can read aloud and then ask questions about for the purpose of analysis. Since these texts are written as scripts, it is recommended that each learning unit be acted out by the students. All texts can be “assembled” into a summary lesson and performed as a full play—that is, the production “Carousel of Money.” Two songs have also been developed for the scripts, which, in addition to being fun, are an excellent tool for reinforcing knowledge.

Staging the play can and should be used as an opportunity for children to develop teamwork skills, creativity, and their creative potential. All children can be involved in producing the performance—as actors, assistant directors, or set designers. They can help build the stage, choose appropriate scenery and props needed for the performance—bags, toys, textbooks—take care of the actors’ costumes, while the “musicians” in the class can be responsible for the musical arrangement.

In developing the teaching aid “Carousel of Money,” the use of electronic devices was deliberately avoided. This allows the training to be conducted in schools with limited budgets, libraries, and community cultural centers, as well as during various forms of extracurricular activities—green/white schools, excursions and mountain hikes, summer and winter camps, and more.