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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.

We are updating the activities to match the new National Standards for Personal Financial Education. The standards in the activity PDF files may not match the website until these updates are complete.

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Showing 17 matches out of 270 activities

Showing 17 matches out of 270 activities

Filters applied
Choosing how to save
Buying things
Elementary school (4-5)

  • Exploring saving and spending game

    Updated

    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.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Earn (Making money), Save and invest (Choosing how to save), Protect (Managing risk), Spend (Buying things), Borrow (Getting loans)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

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

  • Exploring opportunity costs

    Updated

    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.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Earn (Becoming an entrepreneur, Learning about careers, Making money), Spend (Buying things)
    Activity duration:
    75-90 minutes

    Building block

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

  • Using a buying plan

    Updated

    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.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Spend (Budgeting, Buying things)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Executive function
    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Writing about saving

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5)

    Students discuss useful savings habits and then write an expository, persuasive, or narrative paragraph about saving.

    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

  • Creating a song about saving

    Updated

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

    Students write and sing a song about saving money.

    Key information

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

    Building block

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