What can I do to reinforce the concepts taught in my Accounting Class?

As an elective teacher we are faced with having to disguise the learning in our classes. Our students get plenty of worksheets from their math and english teachers. We need to accomplish the same thing but without the worksheet listing the concepts.

In Accounting I like to use Monopoly to do this. We play every week to reinforce the concepts studied that week. Playing Monopoly in accounting is nothing new. I am not the first to do this but I am at my school. The kids love it and the game can grow with you. There is a small initial investment for the games or you can even have the kids bring one in from home. Have the students work in teams of two and create a team or company name. Then you need forms. You can create or download these or you can even buy them. I start with the 5 column General Journal and then add in the General Ledger. Once you get to the sections on financial statements you can have them create worksheets, Balance and income statements along with post closing trial balance sheets.

You can make this work for your accounting classes at all levels and its not to late start. You don't have to play every week but when you tell your students that you are going to be playing Monopoly your students will have fun. You need to walk around a monitor the class as they may not want to track their transactions.