Find financial literacy activities
These urban financial literacy lessons contain activities that can help your children begin learning about money and minimizing risk. They are free of charge to you.
Each of the activity units can be completed within 15 to 90 minutes. The activities can help supplement your childrens' existing financial education in your home or in their school classroom. And there is a complimentary teaching guide, so it’s easy for you to implement at home.
Although a print version is available on Amazon, you can download the activity workbook for free here.
A print version of the teaching guide is available on Amazon, but you can also download the digital edition of the teaching guide for free here.
Protecting your identity online
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children answer true-or-false questions about safe online behaviors and consider ways to protect themselves online.
Meeting your future self
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)
Your children imagine their lives in 10 years and write a fill-in-the-blank letter from their future selves to their current selves.
Mapping your money journey (middle and high school)
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8), High school (9-10), High school (11-12)
Your children complete a short survey to find out about their current money skills and explore things they can do to manage money better.
Exploring entrepreneurship
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)
Your children 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.
Drawing your own business comic strip
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)
Your children explore entrepreneurship by reading a story about entrepreneurs and drawing a comic strip about starting a business.
Exploring opportunity costs
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)
Your children 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.
Playing a business game
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)
Your children read a book about starting a business and then play a game to explore things that can happen when you run a business.
Using a buying plan
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)
Your children read a scenario and then practice creating a buying plan and comparison shopping for a computer.
Comparing higher education choices
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8), High school (9-10), High school (11-12)
Your children explore higher education options by comparing similarities and differences between two colleges near where they live.
Starting your own business
Ideal for: Elementary school (4-5), Middle school (6-8)
Your children practice being entrepreneurs by thinking of businesses they might start based on their own ideas, talents, or passions.
Bouncing ball money choices
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8), High school (9-10), High school (11-12)
Your children play a game to share how they think and feel about money.
Protecting your Social Security number
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children read about the importance of protecting their Social Security number and decide if statements about Social Security numbers are true or false.
Understanding who shapes your money decisions
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8), High school (9-10), High school (11-12)
Your children read a handout and then identify how both they and the people in their lives make choices about money.
Understanding ways to pay for education after high school
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children conduct Internet research to build their awareness of options for paying for education after they graduate from high school.
Understanding minimum payments
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children watch a video and answer questions to learn how long it takes to pay off a credit balance when making only the minimum payment.
Avoiding debt
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children read a short story and a handout to learn about excessive debt and ways to avoid or reduce debt.
Building a good borrowing reputation
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children analyze the profiles of three different people to decide what kind of borrowing reputation they have.
Getting a credit card and using it wisely
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children conduct research to learn about how credit cards work and some tips for using them.
Managing credit card payments
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children use a simple formula to calculate the true cost of items bought with a credit card.
Borrowing money for a house
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children “buy” a local home and calculate payments based on the principal, interest rate, and length of mortgage loans to learn how different loan terms affect the overall cost.
Figuring out how much to tip
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children use common tipping percentages to calculate three tip amounts.
Paying for a pet
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children calculate the costs of owning a pet and practice choosing an appropriate pet.
Calculating energy costs
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children calculate the yearly costs of operating energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs and compare them to the costs of using standard appliances and bulbs.
Brainstorming household budgets
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children review monthly incomes and household expenses to practice making budget decisions, including about housing and roommates.
Budgeting for needs and wants
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children explore the difference between needs and wants and practice making budget choices.
Creating a monthly household budget
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children determine how to balance their needs and wants when budgeting for household bills.
Paying bills
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children explore different payment methods while using a Venn diagram.
Protecting yourself against risk
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
After reviewing a handout about insurance, your children will match types of insurance to the scenarios they cover.
Playing an insurance game
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children play a game to explore types of insurance and how they help protect people.
Learning about budgets
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children learn about budgeting rules and then apply their understanding in an interactive budgeting activity.
Contrasting long-term and short-term savings goals
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children learn the difference between short-term and long-term savings goals and apply their knowledge in an exercise-oriented game.
Using idioms to promote saving
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children explore idioms, which are expressions that use figurative speech, to better understand financial concepts like saving and earning.
Preparing to pay for education after high school
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
After brainstorming ways to save for education after high school, your children create an interactive graphic organizer that highlights ways to pay for postsecondary education.
Saving and investing card game
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children play a game to learn the difference between saving and investing and explore when to save or invest.
Examining elements of a paycheck
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children review a sample pay stub to understand the real-world effect of taxes and deductions on the amount of money workers take home.
Turning hobbies into earnings
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
After learning about the term “gig economy,” your children brainstorm a list of fun hobbies or activities they enjoy doing that could be turned into money-making opportunities.
Counting cash
Ideal for: Middle school (6-8)
Your children practice handling money through simulated purchases and sales transactions.