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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Exploring saving and spending game
Ideal for: Elementary school (2-3), Elementary school (4-5)
Students play a game where they earn and spend money to learn how our choices affect how we’re able to save.
Exploring opportunity costs
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)
Students read a book about the opportunity costs of starting a business, play a fill-in-the-blank game, and discuss things they could give up so they can have something else.
Using a buying plan
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)
Students read a scenario and then practice creating a buying plan and comparison shopping for a computer.
Exploring needs and wants
Ideal for: Elementary school (K-1), Elementary school (2-3), Elementary school (4-5)
Students review pictures of items and decide which ones are needs and which are wants.
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.
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.