Looking for an engaging novel study for Lunch Money by Andrew Clements? This entertaining middle-grade novel gives students much more than a good story. It also opens the door to meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, money, creativity, competition, friendship, problem-solving, and decision-making.
If you’re looking for an engaging ELA novel unit for grades 4–6, Lunch Money is an excellent choice for combining reading comprehension with real-world learning.
About Lunch Money by Andrew Clements
In Lunch Money, students follow Greg Kenton, a student who is fascinated by money and determined to find ways to make it. His entrepreneurial spirit leads him to create and sell his own comic books at school.
But Greg’s business doesn’t go exactly as planned.
As Greg navigates competition, friendship, school rules, and the challenges of running a business, students get plenty to think about and discuss. The story naturally encourages readers to consider questions about fairness, competition, creativity, perseverance, and what it really means to succeed.
These relatable themes make Lunch Money a particularly useful book for classroom discussion and a great addition to an upper-elementary or middle-school novel study.
Why Teach Lunch Money in Your Classroom?
đź’° Introduce Financial Literacy
One of the most valuable aspects of Lunch Money is the way it introduces students to financial concepts through a story they can understand.
Greg’s experiences provide opportunities to talk about:
- Earning and spending money
- Pricing products
- Profit and expenses
- Competition
- Risk and reward
- Entrepreneurship
- Making financial decisions
Rather than learning about these ideas in isolation, students see them play out through a character and situation that feel relevant to their own lives.
đź“š Strengthen Reading Comprehension
An engaging story gives students a reason to keep reading—and Lunch Money provides plenty of opportunities for meaningful comprehension work.
As students read, they can examine character development, motivations, plot events, conflicts, themes, and cause-and-effect relationships.
The novel also lends itself naturally to discussion and written responses, helping students move beyond simply remembering what happened and toward thinking more deeply about the text.
đź’ˇ Encourage Creativity and Critical Thinking
Greg’s entrepreneurial ideas provide an excellent starting point for creative and critical-thinking activities.
Students can consider questions such as:
- What makes a product successful?
- How would you market something you created?
- What makes competition fair or unfair?
- How can problems lead to new ideas?
- What would you do differently if you were Greg?
These types of questions encourage students to apply ideas from the novel to situations outside the story.
🤝 Explore Friendship, Competition, and Fairness
Lunch Money isn’t only about making money.
The relationships and conflicts between the characters give students opportunities to discuss friendship, competition, cooperation, fairness, integrity, and empathy.
These themes can lead to thoughtful classroom conversations and written responses while helping students connect the events of the novel to their own experiences.
Make Lunch Money Easy to Teach With a Complete Novel Study
If you want to teach Lunch Money without spending hours creating comprehension questions, vocabulary activities, assessments, and extension activities, a ready-to-use Lunch Money novel study can save you valuable planning time.
My Lunch Money Novel Study includes both printable and digital resources, making it easy to use whether your students work with paper materials or in a paperless classroom.
The unit includes resources for reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, writing, assessment, and literary analysis, along with teacher materials to help you keep the novel study organized.
What’s Included?
The Lunch Money novel unit includes:
- Teacher lesson plans and pacing support
- Reading comprehension questions
- Vocabulary activities
- Grammar activities
- Writing activities
- Assessments
- Answer keys
- Extension activities
- Story elements activities
- Standards alignment
- Printable PDF resources
- Digital Google Drive™ resources
The unit is designed for approximately grades 4–6 and can be used for whole-class instruction, small groups, independent reading, literature circles, or homeschool.
See what people are saying about the Lunch Money Novel Study by The Teaching Bank!
Looking for a No-Prep Lunch Money Book Unit?
A complete novel study means you don’t have to search for separate Lunch Money worksheets, comprehension questions, vocabulary activities, and assessments.
Everything is organized into one resource so you can spend less time preparing and more time helping your students engage with the book.
Whether you’re planning an ELA novel study, reading unit, literature unit, or financial literacy connection, Lunch Money gives you plenty of opportunities to make reading meaningful and relevant.
Try the Free Preview
Want to see what’s included before purchasing?
You can download a free sample of the Lunch Money novel study to preview the types of activities and resources included in the complete unit.
You can purchase this novel study at the following locations:
Teach More Than a Novel
One of the best things about using children’s literature in the classroom is the opportunity to connect reading to the real world.
Lunch Money gives students a story they can enjoy while opening conversations about money, entrepreneurship, creativity, competition, friendship, and making responsible decisions.
Add a strong reading comprehension and ELA component with a ready-to-use Lunch Money novel study, and you have a flexible unit that can take your students well beyond simply reading the book.
Grab your copy of Lunch Money by Andrew Clements and get ready to explore this engaging story with your students!
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