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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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136 activities

136 activities

  • Creating a monthly household budget

    Updated

    Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)

    Students determine how to balance their needs and wants when budgeting for household bills.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Spend (Budgeting, Buying things, Paying bills)
    Activity duration:
    75-90 minutes

    Building block

    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Differentiating between secured and unsecured loans

    Updated

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

    Students explore characteristics of secured or unsecured types of credit by playing a sorting game.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Borrow (Getting loans, Managing credit)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Distinguishing between credit myths and realities

    Updated

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

    Students analyze and make judgments about credit and borrowing statements to better understand the reality of debt.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Borrow (Getting loans, Managing credit)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

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

  • Paying bills

    Updated

    Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)

    Students explore different payment methods while using a Venn diagram.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Spend (Paying bills)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Executive function

  • Playing an insurance game

    Updated

    Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)

    Students play a game to explore types of insurance and how they help protect people.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Protect (Managing risk, Using insurance)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Protecting yourself against risk

    Updated

    Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)

    After reviewing a handout about insurance, students will match types of insurance to the scenarios they cover.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Protect (Managing risk, Using insurance)
    Activity duration:
    15-20 minutes

    Building block

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

  • Role-playing borrowing and lending

    Updated

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

    Students take on the role of a borrower or a lender to pose questions, apply formulas to calculate interest, and evaluate data to inform borrowing and lending decisions.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Borrow (Getting loans, Managing credit)
    Activity duration:
    75-90 minutes

    Building block

    • Executive function
    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Contrasting long-term and short-term savings goals

    Updated

    Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)

    Students learn the difference between short-term and long-term savings goals and apply their knowledge in an exercise-oriented game.

    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

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

  • Learning about budgets

    Updated

    Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)

    Students learn about budgeting rules and then apply their understanding in an interactive budgeting activity.

    Key information

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

    Building block

    • Executive function
    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Using idioms to promote saving

    Updated

    Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)

    Students explore idioms, which are expressions that use figurative speech, to better understand financial concepts like saving and earning.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Save and invest (Choosing how to save)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Financial habits and norms
    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills
Activities align with the My Money Five principles introduced by the statutorily created federal Financial Literacy and Education Commission.

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