Microsoft Excel Day 3
Introduction to Home Budgets
Daily Objectives
(Students will be able to)
Computer Skills (Review):
 Save an Excel spreadsheet to a USB drive
 Identify columns, rows, and formula bar in an Excel
spreadsheet
 Navigate between cells up, down, and across using
track pad or mouse and arrow keys
 Enter information into cells (both directly and using
the formula bar)
Computer Skills (new):
 Use the currency button on the toolbar to label dollar
amounts in a spreadsheet
 Insert rows
Literacy Skills: (Review)
 Explain how data is related to other data in the same
column in a chart
 Explain how data is related to other data in the same
row in a chart
Literacy Skills: (New)
 Scan a provided budget for specific information
Tasks
(Students will have completed)



Microsoft Excel Ex. 2
Add dollar sign and new rows of
data to their Ex. 2 spreadsheet.
Information gap to communicate
information in a budget
Vocabulary
Currency
Budget
Expense
Income
Materials & Activities
(at the end of this lesson)
Excel Ex 2, Teacher Sample
Info Gap, Scanning a Budget
Activity / Time
Warm-Up
10 min.
Practice
organizing data
Excel
40 min
Description
Resources
Write on board before class:
1. What is data?
2. Why do we organize data?
3. How can we organize data in Microsoft Excel?
As a class, define data (facts or pieces of information).
Ask students to discuss the 2nd and 3rd question with a
partner.
Explain that the Ss will work in pairs to collect data. Microsoft Excel
After they collect the data they will follow instructions Ex 2
in to organize it in an Excel spreadsheet.
Demo
 Ask 2 students for some basic information (name,
favorite color…) and recording their answers on
the board.
 In Excel (open and project before class starts!),
label columns appropriately and fill in the data
you just collected. Talk aloud through the process
and ask for student input: “what data should I
put here?”
Hand out Excel Ex 3, and put students in pairs (they
will only need one computer to do this activity!)
Prepare discussion questions—see Notes column
As pairs finish their spreadsheets, match each person
with a new partner. With the new partner, Ss answer
discussion questions to describe how they collected and
organized the data in their spreadsheets.
Demonstration
and Focused
practice
Show sample spreadsheet. Look at the 2 columns with Excel Exercise 2,
numbers: explain that Excel can label a group of cells Teacher Sample
as a specific kind of number, for example, as currency.
Ask for or give a definition and example of currency.
Notes
Ss will likely remember that Excel
organizes information into columns and
rows. They might not remember that
columns go up/down and rows go across.
Consider pairing more experienced
students with less experienced students; be
careful, however, that one student doesn’t
do all the work!
Write 3 discussion questions on the board
while students are collecting data and
typing in Excel. Look at your objectives
and consider Ss answers during the warm
up when thinking of questions. Some
possible questions:
 What information did you collect?
 What information did you put in
each column?
 What information did you put in
each row?
 How is the data in each column or
row related?
 Why did you put data into columns
and rows, and how this is a useful
way to organize information?
 What tools did you use in Excel to
make your spreadsheet?
25 min.
Ask students if they can find a button on the tool bar
that might help them label cells as currency.
In order to make any changes (like adding currency
symbols), we need to highlight or select the cells first!
Add the dollar sign to the food expenses data. Save the
changes to the document.
Focused Application (brief)
3 minutes: Ss look at the spreadsheet they just made.
Highlight the cells with money, label as currency, and
save the changes. Ss who finish quickly can help others.
Demo
Explain that you want to add your own data to the
spreadsheet but want it to come before the data of the
students in the class. Demo how to insert a row. Add
your personal information. Ask Ss how to insert a row,
and follow their instructions to add information for a
new teacher or student.
Scanning for
information in a
home budgets
30 min
Focused Application
Still in pairs, Ss each add their own information to the
spreadsheet (each Ss inserts one row and adds their
personal data). Ss who finish quickly can continue to
add new data or help others.
Longman
Hints for Info Gaps:
What is a budget?
Hand out Longman Dictionaries. Put Ss in groups of 3 Dictionary (in the
(or more if uneven number); Assign each student to
resource room or Copy Partner A’s version on one color
look up 1 of 3 words in the dictionary: budget, income, the advanced
paper and Partner B’s version on a
or expense. Each student should define his/her word to classroom)
different color. Clipboards are available in
the others in the group.
the resource room.
Info Gap, Scanning
In their groups of 3, ask students to think of examples a Budget (Maya’s Model well. Don’t just explain verbally.
of income and expenses they might find in a home
Budget)
budget.
Review what scanning is (looking quickly to find
specific information). Hints: don’t read everything.
Use the column and row headings to find information
quickly (scan down and then across, or across and then
down).
Extensions for Ss
finishing quickly
Information Gap: in pairs
Partner A and Partner B each have a copy of a budget.
Both partners have some data that is missing: Maybe
Partner A knows how much Maya spends on rent in
March, but not how much she’ll spend in April. Partner
B, however, knows how much she’ll spend on rent in
April, but doesn’t know how much she spent in March.
Without looking at each other’s papers, partners must
ask each other questions to complete the budget.
Ex: Partner A can ask Partner B, “how much will
Maya spend on rent in April?” Partner B must find the
answer in his/her copy of the budget and tell Partner A
the correct amount. Then Partner A can write the
answer in the correct place in the chart.
Type Maya’s budget into Excel. Label currency using
the currency button.
Excel Exercise 2 Teacher Data
First name
Last name
Don
Fredrickson
Omar
Farah
Leonora
Gonzalez Huerta
Helio
Concecao
Lucky
Dlamini
Age
40
27
32
21
29
Food Expenses
250
120
175
90
430
Don’t hand out the worksheet until you
have modeled the activity and checked for
comprehension.
During information gap activity, Ss should
not look at their partner’s paper.
Info Gap, Scanning a Budget
EXPENSES
Rent
phone bill
Gas and
Electricity
New clothes
Bus pass
Health Insurance
Groceries
Chlid Care
Savings
Total Expenses
Amount spent in
March
$650.00
$50.00
Amount budgeted for
April
$650.00
$50.00
$50.00
$120.00
$85.00
$150.00
$175.00
$500.00
$35.00
$1,815.00
$45.00
$20.00
$85.00
$150.00
$160.00
$500.00
$100.00
$1,760.00
Maya's Budget:
Teacher Copy
This is Maya's home budget. It shows how much Maya spent in March. It also shows how much she plans
to spend in April.
You have some of the information, but some things are missing. Your partner also has some information.
Ask your partner for information about Maya's budget, and fill in the missing information.
You can ask questions such as:
How much did Maya spend on rent in March?
How much will Maya spend on clothes in April?
Maya spent $500 in March: what did she spend this
on?