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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 19 matches out of 136 activities

Showing 19 matches out of 136 activities

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  • Meeting your future self

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)

    Students imagine their lives in 10 years and write a fill-in-the-blank letter from their future selves to their current selves.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Earn (Learning about careers, Making money), Save and invest (Saving for long-term goals)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes
    Available in Spanish

    Building block

    • Executive function
    • Financial habits and norms

  • Exploring entrepreneurship

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)

    Students read a book about starting a business, think of an idea for a product they can create or improve, and design a plan for selling it.

    Key information

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

    Building block

    • Executive function
    • Financial habits and norms

  • Drawing your own business comic strip

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)

    Students explore entrepreneurship by reading a story about entrepreneurs and drawing a comic strip about starting a business.

    Key information

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

    Building block

    • 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 knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Playing a business game

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)

    Students read a book about starting a business and then play a game to explore things that can happen when you run a business.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Earn (Becoming an entrepreneur, Learning about careers, Making money)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • 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

  • Comparing higher education choices

    Updated

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

    Students explore higher education options by comparing similarities and differences between two colleges near where they live.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Earn (Learning about careers, Making money), Spend (Paying for college)
    Activity duration:
    45-60 minutes

    Building block

    • Financial knowledge and decision-making skills

  • Starting your own business

    Updated

    Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)

    Students practice being entrepreneurs by thinking of businesses they might start based on their own ideas, talents, or passions.

    Key information

    Topic:
    Earn (Becoming an entrepreneur, Making money)
    Activity duration:
    75-90 minutes

    Building block

    • 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

  • Understanding who shapes your money decisions

    Updated

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

    Students read a handout and then identify how both they and the people in their lives make choices about money.

    Key information

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

    Building block

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