This book is dedicated to accounting teachers everywhere.
For it is you who teach our students the skills that every
business depends on.
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GAMES ACCOUNTING TEACHERS PLAY
ISBN 0-9774611-2-2
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A Collection of Creative
Games, Activities, and
Instructional Strategies
to Energize Accounting
Classrooms
Joy Tavano, Editor
Published by
Business Education Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 8558, Warwick, RI 02888
U.S.A.
INTRODUCTION
This book, Games Accounting Teachers Play, is a compilation
of some of the best ideas and lessons published in Teaching Business
Education Newsletter. The newsletter was conceived in 1996 and is
currently published by Business Education Publishing, Inc. Teaching
Business Education Newsletter is widely regarded as an energizing
teaching idea resource for business educators.
Games Accounting Teachers Play includes energizing games,
activities, and strategies that will make teaching and learning accounting
an interactive, fun experience for classrooms across America. This book
will help accounting teachers add a new, hands-on, visually stimulating
dimension to their accounting classrooms. The ideas in this book will
spark new energy and spirit in your classroom. The games and activities
have been carefully selected to offer students a variety of methods in
which to learn. From accounting bingo, to journalizing with Post-it®
Notes, students will be creatively challenged to learn and improve their
accounting skills.
Sharpen your pencils, tune-up your worksheets, and warm up your
calculators. Get ready to implement the great ideas found in Games
Accounting Teachers Play!
CONTENTS
BULLETIN BOARDS & VISUAL REINFORCEMENTS
A Sticky Situation .......................................................................................2
Footprints Bulletin Board ...........................................................................3
Are You In Balance? ...................................................................................4
Flash Some Light on Accounting Errors.....................................................5
Income Summary Coffee Pot ......................................................................6
A Balancing Act ..........................................................................................7
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s “Capital T!” .....................................................8
Honor Roll Shade......................................................................................10
The Human T-Account ..............................................................................11
Hang Your Students’ Work Out to Dry .....................................................12
A Super Bowl Summary ...........................................................................13
Dead Coil ..................................................................................................14
CLASSROOM DISCUSSION GENERATORS
Can You Remember? ................................................................................18
Chapter Peer Review.................................................................................21
What’s in a Doughnut?..............................................................................22
Take a Trip to Close Accounts ..................................................................24
Soaked Up Closing Entries .......................................................................25
An Idea to “Die” For .................................................................................27
Accounting Students “PIG” Out ...............................................................28
ACCOUNTING GAMES
Posting Relay Races..................................................................................30
Accounting Vocabulary Bingo ..................................................................31
Accounting Beach Ball .............................................................................34
Students Get “Trained” in Account Classifications ..................................36
Accounting Password................................................................................37
Team T-Accounts ......................................................................................38
Reviewing Incentives ................................................................................40
Accounting Monopoly ..............................................................................41
Worksheet Wizards ...................................................................................47
CONTENTS CONTINUED
HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES
Petty Cash Processing ...............................................................................50
Athletic Accounting ..................................................................................54
Sloppy Balance Sheet ...............................................................................56
Student Checkbooks..................................................................................59
®
M&M Adjustments ..................................................................................60
The Many Hats of Special Journals ..........................................................61
®
Lego My Inventory ..................................................................................63
Reading an Annual Report ........................................................................66
Posting with Candy ...................................................................................67
®
Post-it on the Wall ...................................................................................69
®
M&M ’s Closing Entries ..........................................................................71
Be Prepared or It Can Cost You ................................................................73
How to Calculate Accounting Skills .........................................................75
Cleaning Up the Accounting Cycle...........................................................76
“Cheer” Up Your Accounting Students.....................................................78
Life with the Credit Family.......................................................................80
CREATIVE PROJECTS & ASSESSMENTS
The Accounting Scrapbook .......................................................................84
The Classroom Audit ................................................................................87
Accounting Cycle Poster Contest .............................................................88
An Idea Not Worth Withholding ...............................................................89
A Mounting of an Idea ..............................................................................90
Daily T-Account Quiz ...............................................................................92
Annual Report Scavenger Hunt ................................................................95
Charting the Course for Santa ...................................................................97
ACCOUNTING TEACHING TIPS & RESOURCES
AccountingEducation.com ......................................................................100
Wipe Away Your Accounting Blues ........................................................101
A Not-so-Transparent Solution ...............................................................102
Careers-In-Accounting.com ....................................................................103
A Balancing Act
Objective:
• To demonstrate the concept of debits and
credits
Materials Needed:
• Scale from the science department
• Coins
Time Required:
• Approximately 10-20 minutes
Procedure:
Try using a scale from your school’s science department to
demonstrate the concept of debits and credits to your accounting
students. Label one side of the scale “Debits” and the other “Credits.”
You can use coins on both sides of the scale to demonstrate how
debits and credits must be equal to each other. Alternately, you can add
more coins to one side of the scale to demonstrate how accounts can
become out of balance.
Contributor:
The editors of Teaching Business Education Newsletter
7
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s
“Capital T!”
Objective:
• To provide students with a memorable way to
reinforce debit and credit sides of T-accounts
Materials Needed:
• A school administrator
• Red cape
• A large letter “T”
Time Required:
• Approximately 10-15 minutes
Procedure:
“It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s the Capital T superhero!” That’s right
folks. There’s a real-life superhero called “Capital T” that does nothing
else but rescue accounting classrooms from learning equations and
formulas. “Capital T” could be coming to your accounting class soon.
Try this ingeniously creative approach to teaching your accounting
students about T-accounts. Invite a school administrator to come into
your accounting classroom wearing a red cape and the letter “T” on his
or her chest.
8
When it’s time for the administrator to enter the classroom, ask
students to listen and ask, “Do I hear a debit? No! Do I hear a credit?
No! It’s Capital T!”
“Capital T” then vivaciously enters the room and states,
“Remember kids, debits are always on the left and credits are always on
the right. I have to go now and rescue another accounting equation that
is out of balance. See you soon!”
Your students will never forget it!
Contributor:
Joy Brown, Accounting Instructor, Ocean Springs High School, Ocean
Springs, MS
9
The Human T-Account
Objective:
• To assist students in remembering account
classification and normal balance
Materials Needed:
• Three sheets of paper—one with a “+,” one with a “-,” and one
with “Normal Balance” written on them
Time Required:
• Teacher’s discretion
Procedure:
To help students remember account classification and normal
balance, choose one student to stand at the front of the class with arms
outstretched (like a T-account) and assign that student an account title.
Then give one student a sheet of paper with a “+” sign and the word
“increase” written on it. Another student receives a sheet of paper with a
“-” sign and the word “decrease” written on it. A third student receives a
sheet of paper with the words “normal balance.”
The students then have to go up to the T-account student and stand
on the debit, credit, and normal balance side of that account. Students
enjoy this as a quick review, and it gives them an opportunity to move
around.
Contributor:
Kimberly Peterson, Business Education Teacher, Essex High School,
Essex, IA
11