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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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Showing 8 matches out of 251 activities

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Making money
Elementary school (K-1)
Elementary school (2-3)

  • Exploring ways we use money

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (K-1)

    Students listen to scenarios about using money, move to one corner of the room or another to identify what people in the scenario were doing (saving, spending, earning, borrowing), and discuss the example.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Earn (Making money), Save and invest (Saving for long-term goals, Saving for short-term goals), Spend (Buying things), Borrow (Getting loans)
    Activity duration:
    15-20 minutes

    Building block

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

  • Playing career charades

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (2-3)

    Students play a game of charades to explore different careers

    Key information

    Topic:
    Earn (Making money)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Executive function
    • Financial habits and norms

  • Learning about careers with Money Monsters

    Updated

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

    Students use paper puppets to role-play a story about Money Monsters exploring career options and think about careers they might enjoy.

    Key information

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

    Building block

    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Choosing a career

    Updated

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

    Students identify their interests and talents after reading a story about characters who explore careers connected to things they like to do.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Earn (Making money)
    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.