Find financial literacy activities
Find activities that can help you teach and nurture the building blocks of financial capability across the curriculum.
These classroom activities can be completed within a single class period. Each activity comes with a teacher guide and supporting student material, so it’s easy to implement whether you’re an experienced personal finance teacher, integrating financial literacy into another subject area, or supplementing your existing financial education curriculum.
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Spending more than money on a pet
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5)
Students read a story and then write a persuasive paragraph about a pet they’d like to own.
Using a budget to shop for a party
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5)
Students learn about budgets and then use a budget to decide what food to buy for an imaginary party.
Bouncing ball spending game
Ideal for: Elementary school (2-3), Elementary school (4-5)
Students play a game to explore how they make choices about money and how people in their lives can influence those choices.
Giving to a cause
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5)
Students create a poster to persuade others to support a cause helping an imaginary community in need.
Sharing a story about borrowing
Ideal for: Elementary school (2-3), Elementary school (4-5)
Students read a story about Money Monsters who are learning to be good borrowers.
Learning about insurance
Ideal for: Elementary school (2-3), Elementary school (4-5)
Students play a game where they do an action to match common types of insurance with the risks they cover.
Understanding our money choices
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5)
Students discuss and reflect on how they think and feel about money and how the people in their lives help shape those thoughts and feelings.
Matching interests and talents to careers
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5)
Students match two people’s interests and talents to ideal careers and then write about their own interests, talents, and possible career choices.
Starting your own business
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)
Students practice being entrepreneurs by thinking of businesses they might start based on their own ideas, talents, or passions.
Exploring ways to protect what’s important to us
Ideal for: Elementary school (K-1), Elementary school (2-3), Elementary school (4-5)
Students draw a picture and answer open-ended questions based on a story about protecting ourselves and our property.