Skip to main content
An official website of the United States government
(855) 411-2372
Submit a Complaint
Search

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.

Illustration of teacher and student activity books

Search for activities

Skip to search results

136 activities

136 activities

  • Learning to save with Money Monsters

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (K-1), Elementary school (2-3)

    Students listen to a story about saving money and then apply their learning using paper puppets.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Save and invest (Saving for long-term goals, Saving for short-term goals)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Executive function
    • Financial habits and norms

  • Playing a money counting game

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (2-3)

    Students practice counting money by playing a game where they take turns earning money and paying someone for a job.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Earn (Becoming an entrepreneur, Getting paid, Making money), Spend (Paying bills)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Puzzling out your savings future

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5)

    Using an origami children’s puzzle, students will choose an item, a time frame, and a dollar amount to determine how long they need to save before they can buy that item.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Save and invest (Saving for long-term goals, Saving for short-term goals)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Financial habits and norms

  • Saving for now and later

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (2-3), Elementary school (4-5)

    Students learn about the importance of saving, explore the difference between short-term and long-term goals, and then set their own savings goals.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Save and invest (Saving for long-term goals, Saving for short-term goals)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Executive function
    • Financial habits and norms
    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Saving for this or that

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (K-1), Elementary school (2-3)

    Students vote with their feet as they choose between two things they could save for and then reflect on the importance of setting goals for saving.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Save and invest (Saving for long-term goals, Saving for short-term goals)
    Activity duration:
    15-20 minutes

    Building block

    • Executive function
    • Financial habits and norms

  • Starting small and saving up

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (2-3), Elementary school (4-5)

    Students read a story about characters who save for something special and then create their own savings goal.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Save and invest (Saving for long-term goals, Saving for short-term goals)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Executive function
    • Financial habits and norms

  • Stepping into savings

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (2-3)

    Students learn how savings can increase at different rates by practicing skip counting and documenting their results on a worksheet.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Save and invest (Choosing how to save, Saving for long-term goals, Saving for short-term goals)
    Activity duration:
    15-20 minutes

    Building block

    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Learning how federal financial aid can help you pay for higher education

    Updated

    Ideal for: High school (9-10), High school (11-12)

    After watching a video describing basic types of federal financial aid, students answer content-based questions about financial planning for college.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Save and invest (Saving for college), Spend (Paying for college), Borrow (Getting loans)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Executive function
    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Bouncing ball money choices

    Updated

    Ideal for: Middle school (6-8), High school (9-10), High school (11-12)

    Students play a game to share how they think and feel about money.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Save and invest (Choosing how to save), Spend (Buying things)
    Activity duration:
    15-20 minutes

    Building block

    • Financial habits and norms

  • Drawing your own savings comic strip

    Updated

    Ideal for: High school (9-10), High school (11-12)

    Students identify an important lesson about saving money and create a comic strip reflecting that lesson.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Save and invest (Saving for long-term goals, Saving for short-term goals)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Executive function
    • Financial habits and norms
Activities align with the My Money Five principles introduced by the statutorily created federal Financial Literacy and Education Commission.

Page last modified @

View older versions of this page at our public archive.