Fun with Character: Bucket of Money

For this exercise, divide the class into small groups and tell each group to pretend that they have $525,600.00 to spend however they want for the year. Let them know that they must spend it all – no saving! If they do not spend it all, they will lose it. They don’t have to know the actual prices of things. They can just budget a certain amount of money to purchase a group of items. For example, they may budget $ 2,000 for pizza, $ 5,000 for CDs, or $ 8,000 for new shoes for the group. Ask each group whether they could buy all the items in a single year. If you have younger students, do this as a class exercise: record the purchases on the board and keep a tally of what is left to spend.

When you are finished, then tell them that there are 525,600 minutes in a year. Just as we planned on what we would spend money on, we should also plan on what we should spend time on. Seasons of Love is a song from Rent that you may recognize based on the lyric “525,600 minutes”. When the exercise is over, play the song. This YouTube version has the lyrics so you have a visual of the number, but there are many from which to choose.

To process this activity, ask these or similar questions:

• Was it easy to spend all that money? Did it seem like a lot?

• What do you think it means to measure a year in love?

• How do you measure a year? After this exercise, will you think about that differently?