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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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.
Learning about giving with Money Monsters
Ideal for: Elementary school (K-1), Elementary school (2-3)
Students listen to a story about giving money and then apply their learning using paper puppets.
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.
Meeting your future self
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.
Making smart money trades
Ideal for: Elementary school (2-3)
Students listen to a story about making money trades and determine whether the values of different groups of coins and paper money are equal or unequal.
Starting small and saving up
Ideal for: Elementary school (2-3), Elementary school (4-5)
Students read a story about characters who save for something special and then create their own savings goal.
Puzzling out your savings future
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5)
Using an origami children’s puzzle, students will choose an item, a time frame, and a dollar amount to determine how long they need to save before they can buy that item.
Learning to save with Money Monsters
Ideal for: Elementary school (K-1), Elementary school (2-3)
Students listen to a story about saving money and then apply their learning using paper puppets.
Saving for now and later
Ideal for: Elementary school (2-3), Elementary school (4-5)
Students learn about the importance of saving, explore the difference between short-term and long-term goals, and then set their own savings goals.
Comparing places to save money
Ideal for: Elementary school (K-1), Elementary school (2-3), Elementary school (4-5)
Students compare saving money at home to saving money at a bank or credit union and then act out stories to explore which option they would choose.