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Global Currency

Students will explore the currency of other countries, then create a coin to honor a hero of their choice.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Heavy Paper

Steps

  • Step 1

    In just about every country around the world, with very few exceptions, the nation's currency features an image of an admired person. It might be a leader or politician, sports icon, writer, religious figure, scientist, philanthropist, or any other celebrated individual. Have students explore the currency of other countries. What is the unit of currency? How does the value compare with their local currency? Who are the people who appear on the paper money or coins?  What are they known for? What is the process for choosing who will appear on the currency?

  • Step 2

    Ask students to think about a hero they would want to honor by featuring them on a unit of currency. Have them list the traits that make this person worthy of the honor as well as some of their noted accomplishments that contributed positively to their country.

  • Step 3

    Have students cut a circle (for a coin) or a rectangle (for paper money) out of a piece of heavy paper. Then have them draw the person on the cut-out using markers. Encourage them to embellish the images using metallic markers and include words or visual symbols that represent what the person is known for.

Standards

SS: Individual Development and Identity: Describe factors important to the development of personal identity and the context of identity within families, peer or affinity groups, schools, communities, and nationalities. 

SS: Production, Distribution, and Consumption: Explore economic decision-making by comparing one's own economic experiences with those of others.

Adaptations

Have students form small groups to design a currency conversion game. Each group can look up the exchange rates of various currencies, then create a game in which the object might involve converting their local currency into the currency of a country they'd like to visit. 

Ask students to explore some interesting facts about the people featured on world currencies. For example, over half of the faces on the world’s currency designs belong to monarchs or heads of government. And in Bosnia and Herzegovina, about 90% of the people featured are poets because of a rule that states that local currency can only feature writers.