Working at the car wash (Levels 3 – 4+)

Context for learning
In this activity students hold a car wash at school to raise money for a specific purpose (eg: to donate to a charity, to purchase class games for wet days, to finance a class party, etc).
The purpose of this activity is to highlight financial thinking to students and provide them with an understanding of the key financial messages:
  • Financial planning is important for personal and business financial success.
  • We need to consider risks before we make a financial decision.

Learning areas
English, The arts, Health & PE, Languages, Mathematics, Science, Social sciences, Technology
Learning outcomes
Students will be able to:
  1. take an active role in a fund-raising venture
  2. prepare and budget and record their expenditure and income using a cash book.
/ Financial capability progressions
Money
  • Use coins and notes for transactions and calculate correct change.
Spending
  • Investigate different ways to get value for money when spending.
Budgeting and financial management
  • Create a simple budget for an activity or event, prioritising 'needs' and 'wants'.
Setting financial goals
  • Create a plan for short term and long term saving based on personal goals.
Identifying and managing risk
  • Identify types of financial risks to individuals, families and communities and discuss ways of managing them.

Key competencies
Thinking
  • Identifying, assessing and managing risks: thinking about what could go wrong with new financial opportunities over time and making decisions to avoid or minimise risks.
Participating and Contributing
  • Planning and organising: setting financial goals, establishing budgets, establishing a timeline, making decisions, etc.
Relating to others
  • Working with others and in teams: listening to and encouraging others to share the responsibilities and take part in actioning financial decisions.
  • Being fair and responsible: taking ownership of your financial responsibilities and decisions while being mindful of how they will affect others.
Managing self
  • Using initiative and drive: being enterprising and resourceful to earn your income and spending and saving wisely, thus achieving your financial goals and plans.
/ Values
Excellence
  • Setting financial goals and achieving them.
Innovation, inquiry and curiosity
Thinking creatively, critically, and reflectively to:
  • set and achieve personal financial goals
  • analyse and solve financial problems.

Resource requirements
  • Cash book template
  • Buckets
  • Hose pipes
  • Car wash detergent
  • Sponges
  • People with cars

Teaching and learning sequence
  1. The teacher explains to the students that they are going to offer a car washing service at school to raise money for a nominated purpose. The teacher and students brainstorm possible ways that the profits from the car wash could be used, eg: give the money to a charity, purchase resources for the classroom or PE shed, have a class trip or class party, etc.
  2. Students use a decision grid or have a vote to decide how they will spend the profits from the car wash.
  3. The students and teacher make a list of all the equipment that they will need to hold a car wash. Equipment should include: buckets, hose pipe/s, water supply, sponges, car wash detergent, etc. The teacher offers to sell and/or hire the necessary equipment to the students for a ‘price’ which will be reimbursed to the teacher / school out of the profits from the car wash.
  4. The estimated set up costs for the car wash are recorded onto a budget template.
  5. The students think about who their potential customers for the car wash could be and estimate how many cars they could wash during a morning. They discuss strategies to increase their productivity so that they can wash as many cars as possible – while retaining quality control. Students may test out their calculations at this stage. The students decide on a suitable fee that they could charge people for a car wash and calculate their potential earnings. They update their budget with this information.
  6. The students select a date for the car wash and advertise the event in the school newsletter.
  7. The students identify the things that could go wrong with their fund raising venture, eg: wet weather, faulty hose pipe, lack of customers, etc. They put plans in place to try and manage the risks, e.g. have a postponement date scheduled, have back up hose pipes, ensure that advertising reaches a wide audience and that the car wash is reasonably priced, etc.
  8. The students are assigned roles for the car wash such as money collector, cash book recorder, hose pipe operator, directors of traffic, car scrubbers, bucket fillers, dirty water collectors, etc.
  9. The car wash is held and the revenue is counted. The students pay back the teacher for the equipment charges and calculate their profits. This financial information is recorded onto a cashbook template.
  10. Students spend their profits as planned.
Reflective questions for discussion
  1. Students reflect on the amount of profits that they made from the car wash and describe how they feel about their fund-raising efforts. They consider the hours they have spent completing this venture, and estimate their hourly rate of profit per person.
  2. Students reflect on the variations to budget.
  3. If you could repeat this fund-raising activity, what could you do differently to achieve a larger revenue?
  4. Can you think of other ways to raise money?
  5. What key financial messages can we write for our display wall?
  6. How well did the group apply the enterprising attributes during your planning and car wash? How woud you apply the enterprising attributes differently next time?

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