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Teach the building blocks of financial capability

Using the building blocks to integrate financial education throughout K–12 education represents a promising opportunity to reach children and youth at pivotal points in their development and financial lives.

The building blocks provide a framework and effective strategies to teach students at different development stages the skills and knowledge associated with adult financial well-being. You can use this framework to identify financial literacy priorities, develop promising teaching techniques, and refine existing programs and resources.

Nurture the building blocks in the classroom

To help you teach the building blocks across different content areas and educational settings, CFPB has created a range of informative materials and classroom activities to instruct students of all ages. These resources can help promote lifelong learning and financial skills development.

Activities

Find activities that can help you teach the building blocks of financial capability across the curriculum.

Assessments

Measure students’ progress toward youth financial capability.

Building block resources

Access online financial education resources from other agencies and organizations that support our classroom activities.

Glossary

Build students’ financial vocabulary by introducing key terms.

Money Monsters stories

Use the Money Monsters story series to help children in grades K-5 develop financial literacy skills.

Free printed tools and resources

Order printed copies of CFPB’s essential financial resources from our Youth financial education site.

Teaching techniques for building financial capability

Research on the building blocks of financial capability shows that specific instructional strategies and learning activities are appropriate for helping youth develop the knowledge, skills, and habits that can lead to adult financial well-being. CFPB has created informational materials to support educators in putting this research into practice.

Grade-level guides

Use these brief guides to incorporate developmentally appropriate strategies into your classroom to help students learn and practice skills to develop financial capability.

Effective teaching strategies

Although many strategies can be effective for teaching youth financial education, the Bureau has identified and defined some that are well suited for teaching particular building blocks.