How to talk with your children about the stock market.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

FORT WORTH, Texas _ Bears and bulls can signify more to your children than favorite storybook characters or animals in a zoo. Even elementary-school students can benefit from knowing how the stock market works and how money invested can increase over time, despite day-to-day fluctuations in the market.

The stock market has been in the news a lot recently, and kids may have a lot of questions. But how do you explain how it works? Sometimes parents need a little coaching.

"My parents are just now understanding what I'm saying," said Michelle Williams, 11, of Mansfield, a Fort Worth suburb. Her Mary Orr Intermediate School team won the "Star-Telegram" Newspaper in Education stock market game last fall.

We consulted financial advisers, teachers, parents and the stock-savvy Mary Orr students to figure out seven ways to help your kids understand Wall Street.

1. Help them define "stock."

Tate Lindsey, a financial adviser for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter at The Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, often speaks to schoolchildren and has a delicious metaphor.

"I refer to a company as a pizza," Lindsey said. "Shares of a company are like slices of pizza. That's usually a good way to get kids to understand shares. You own a piece of the pie. The bigger the company, the more slices."