Lesson Plans

Banking/Financial Services   Bankruptcy     Budgeting   Career   Charitable Giving   Coin Recognition/Values
Credit/Buying a Home    Decision Making    Economic Reasoning   Entrepreneurism    Financial Behavior
Financial Goals     General Teacher Info    Goods & Services   Income   Insurance   Investments    Loans
Monetary and Fiscal Policy   Money   Opportunity Costs & Tradeoffs    Other    Productivity
Retirement Planning    Saving/Spending   Scarcity & Choices   Supply & Demand   Taxes

 

Banking/Financial Services

Money: Kids and Cash (pdf)

Length of Lesson: One class period

Objectives:
Students will understand the following:

  1. A bank pays interest to people who put money in it.
  2. A bank charges interest to people who borrow money from it.
  3. A bank charges higher interest to borrowers than it pays to savers.

Grades: 3-5

Writing a Check
Knowing how to write checks and reconcile a bank statement are critical components of personal finance for students to understand.  These lesson plans cover it all!

Checking Lesson Plan (pdf)

Checking Unit with Lesson Plans (pdf)

Writing A Check Worksheet (pdf)

Writing a Check Worksheet 2 (pdf)

Grade: 7-12

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Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy Lesson Plan (pdf)
This lesson plan has everything you will need to inform you students on bankruptcy.  Several worksheets are in the PDF as well.

Grades: 9-12

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Budgeting

Spending Goals
This quick worksheet will help students identify short term, long term, and sharing goals.  They can determine items to be saved for and the date they would like to achieve their saving goals.

Student Worksheet (pdf)

Grades: K-2

Ed’s Bank
This is an online game where students quickly fill a bank with coins while being timed.  When time runs out, they are able to choose whether it is time to go shopping, or if they want to continue saving.  Once to the store, the students choose from CDs, hats, and other fun things to buy.

Grades: K-2, 3-6

A Gift for Mama
Sara has always made gifts for her family for special occasions. For Mother's Day, Sara decides she wants to buy a gift for her mother.

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan

Grades: 3-6

The Leaves in October
In this book , Livvy, and a friend, Belinda, sell tissue roses. They share their profits. Belinda spends her money; Livvy saves her. Students learn about different places to save their money and the advantages and disadvantages of each. They also learn that spending and saving decisions each have opportunity costs.

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan

Grades: 3-6

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
In this lesson based on From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, students use the experiences of Claudia and Jamie to learn about income, expenses, and the budget process.  The book follows the adventures of two runaway children hiding out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  Students complete an activity emphasizing the need for income and the importance of planning and budgets.  Students also have an opportunity to update some of the 1967 prices used in the book.  The assessment activity has students sort through expenses and income sources to construct their own weekly budget.

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan - including chapter review questions, activities, worksheets, extension activities, etc.

Is the Price Right? Activity 2: Is the Price Right?

From the Mixed-up Budget of... Activity 3: From the Mixed-up Budget of...

Grades: 4-6

Making A Budget

This activity is great around the holidays or can be used for the students' birthdays.

  1. Introduce the lesson by asking students to make a list of ALL the things they want for their birthday/holiday.
  2. Then discuss the difference between a want and a need.
  3. Students divide their lists into two categories, wants and needs.
  4. Discuss their lists and have them revise. Some things are deleted.
  5. As a class make a list of all standard household bills parents receive each month. Be sure to impress upon them that their personal business is private and not to share specific dollar amounts. Form a class list on the board or overhead.
  6. Place estimated $$ amounts by each bill. For example, electricity $100, etc.
  7. Arrive at a grand total of the average monthly bills that their parents must pay before gifts may be purchased. (This is a real eye opener!!) Discuss wisdom and how it is obtained over a period of years, not learned form a text book.
  8. Assign students a project of finding a wise person (someone over the age of 60) to interview. They are to ask: What was Christmas/your birthdays like for you as a child? Then they are to record their story and any other information about their family traditions.
  9. Student information my be turned in as a video taped interview, written as a new paper article, written in story form, etc.

Hand back their original birthday list and ask them if the want to add or delete any of the items. They (9 out of 10 of them) will want to delete items.

Grades: 4-8

Cottage Budget
*Copies of handout materials and overhead projector sheets will need to be made before class. Students will need a calculator, writing implements, and a notebook.

Click on the following link for the activity:

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan

Students will be able to use critical thinking for geometry. By having the students build a cottage while staying on budget, students will learn how to evaluate alternatives, work with a financial plan, present and substantiate their analyses, and understand the importance of specifying units when representing a value.

Activity 1: Discuss what was learned to reduce the costs of building the cottage of the students dreams.

Music Connection Music Connection

Grades: 9

Budgeting Your Financial Resources
Financial planning helps you use your money to get the most out of life. A financial plan, or budget, is a decision-making tool based on the basic principles of scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost. Without a financial plan, impulse buying may make it difficult to "make ends meet," no matter your income. Equipped with an understanding of financial planning, students are better able to adapt to ever-changing economic conditions.

Grades: 9-12

Budget Lesson Plan (pdf)
Students work in pairs to participate in a “Track Star” game that illustrates positive and negative spending behaviors. Each pair of students analyzes the “Track Star” results, identifies effective and ineffective budgeting behaviors, and generates a list of budgeting principles.

Grades: 9-12

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Career – Earning an Income/Management

What is Money?
This lesson teaches students the answers to question such as:  What is money?  Where does money come from?  How is money used?

Lesson Extension: Have students brainstorm different skills and how those skills might be used in different jobs that people do. What things are students learning now, and how might they be important one day at a job? Invite a guest to speak to your class about his or her career path and the steps taken to achieve his or her goals.

Expository: Writing Situation: Everyone has jobs or chores. Directions for Writing: Think about why you do one of your jobs or chores. Now explain why you do one of your jobs or chores.

Narrative: Writing Situation: People have many types of different jobs and use many different types of skills in those jobs. Directions for Writing: Think about a job that you find interesting and write about how your skills could be used in that job. Now write a story about a real or imagined job.

Student Magazine Student Magazine Pages and Worksheets (pdf)

Grades: 3-4

Career Short Stories
For this activity, students write a short story that features a particular occupation.

Have students choose a career that interests them and research the basic information about the career (education requirements, salary range, skills and abilities, tools and equipment used, etc.)

After completing this research, have students write a fiction story centered on this occupation. Although the story line can be fiction, the career area must be realistic based on their research.

Identify some fictional stories that have a particular career focus as examples for the students.

Examples of short stories:

  1. The Green Mile--prison guard
  2. The Minister's Black Veil--clergy
  3. Dr. Heidegger's Experiment--doctor
  4. A Summer's Reading-- odd jobs of a high school drop out
  5. A Sound of Thunder-- travel agent

Examples of novels:

  1. Almost any of John Grisholm's books--lawyers
  2. Coma--medical occupations

Grades: 7-9

Trish and Scott's Big Adventure
This lesson plan has students explore differences in regional housing costs, determine the percentage of gross income spent on housing, assess the impact of housing costs on a relocation decision and recognize wages and housing costs are prices.  Very hands on and individualized.

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan

Grades: 9

A Fair Wage
Income for most people is determined by the market value of the productive resources they sell. What workers earn depends, primarily, on the market value of what they produce and how productive they are.

Grades: 7-12

Education vs. Income Paper Activity (doc)
Learn how educational statistics are represented in our population with this quick, engaging activity.

Grades: 7-12

Wages and Me Lesson Plan
Who wouldn’t like to earn a high income? How can you achieve that goal? Be aware of the many factors that differentiate wages in a variety of occupations, as well as within the same occupation in different areas of the country. Knowing those factors can give you the information you need to find careers with the income levels you want.

Grades: 7-12

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Charitable Giving

Decision Making Model
This lesson will help students apply decision making skills with choosing a charity to donate money to.

Grades:  K-3

Kids Helping Others
This is a document in PDF format to help students analyze giving money to charities.

Kids Helping Others Student Magazine Pages and Worksheets: Kids Helping Others

Grades:  4-5

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Coin Recognition/Values

Crazy Coins (pdf)
Fantastic lesson packed with fun activities to help children learn to identify coins.

Grades: K-3

Let's Find Out About Money
This activity is designed to teach the attributes of each coin (penny, nickel, dime and quarter), including physical characteristics and value.

Grades: 1

Money & Making Change
Penny and Bill know how to shake things up when it comes to counting money and making change. Cool songs and games provide plenty of practice with real-world skills. Learn about coins and how they relate to one another, strategies for counting cash, "skip counting," expressing money in written terms, how to make change, and more. You’ll have lots of fun as you gain valuable skills you can bank on. For ages 6 & up. Approx. 57 minutes. DVD Video $19.95

Grades: 1-5

Thinking About Change:  Kids Use Coins to Learn
Challenging students to use certain groupings of coins to buy items from the classroom store is a playful and engaging way for them to meet state first-grade curriculum standards for learning coin values and equivalencies. It also focuses students on real-world situations that require them to apply the math skills they developed earlier in the school year.

Article on how to set up a class store and use laminated coins for purchases.

Printable Coins Printable Coins for Teaching Math

Grades: 1

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Credit / Buying a Home

Not for a Billion Gazillion Dollars (pdf)
Students share several chapters from the book Not for a Billion Gazillion Dollars, by Paula Danzinger, to learn about earning money, saving, credit, and debt. Students complete a worksheet on spending habits, complete an activity in which they determine whether or not they should purchase items with cash or credit, and analyze a credit-card statement.

Grades: 5

True Life Stories (pdf)
Homeownership is the primary means by which households in the United States achieve financial security and communities remain stable. While long term homeownership is extremely beneficial in building wealth, stability and community living, preserving the dream of homeownership can sometimes become a challenge due to unexpected events or predatory mortgage terms.  Borrowers can find themselves in danger of losing their homes due to unexpected circumstances such as job loss, emergency expenses, divorce and death or poor money management. Lacking access to good advice and financial education, borrowers can also find themselves surprised by mortgage terms that don’t fit their financial profile.

This link is to an interactive online comic on home ownership, credit and borrowing.

Grades:  7-9, 10-12

Trish and Scott's Big Adventure
This lesson plan has students explore differences in regional housing costs, determine the percentage of gross income spent on housing, assess the impact of housing costs on a relocation decision and recognize wages and housing costs are prices.  Very hands on and individualized.

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan

Grades: 9

Buy Now & Pay More Later
Students must understand that when they use a credit card, they are taking out a loan from the issuer of the card. If the amount owed on a credit card is paid in full each month, there is no cost for using the credit card. However, if the borrower is unable or unwilling to pay the credit card bill in full, the cardholder must pay interest (finance charge) on the unpaid balance.

Grades: 9-12

Buying vs. Renting
In this lesson, students’ basic economic decision making skills will be used to weigh the pros and cons of home ownership, and to analyze housing options. 

Grades: 9-12

The Credit Card Mystery
Excerpt from lesson:

“Credit Cards are a risky business these days, especially for students and those holding multiple cards. Interest rates on credit card balances have always been high relative to other rates, for several reasons. Despite this, there is still a demand for the "plastic money" that many people see as convenient and ideal with the increasingly technological world economy. This lesson explores many issues surrounding credit cards- from what to look for when selecting a card to what the government is doing to aid consumers.”

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan (teacher version) This lesson provides teachers with the resources that they will need to teach this lesson.

Grades: 10

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Decision Making

Decision Making Model
This lesson will help students apply decision making skills with choosing a charity to donate money to.

Grades:  K-3

Making Spending Decisions
In this activity, students color and cut out their own play money.  They identify items that cost money and determine things they would choose to spend their money on.

Student Worksheet Student Worksheet (pdf)

After completing the activity, have students draw pictures of 3-5 items that cost money.  Have them spell the name of that item.  If they need help with spelling, have them ask a friend to help them.  Once they have their pictures, have them choose only one to buy.  Explain that when money is limited, we must make choices.

Grades:  1

Making Choices
Understand the different ways to save money and reasons for doing so.

Grades: 4-6

Decision Making and Goal Setting Lesson Plan (pdf)
Help students become familiar with the decision making process with this lesson.

Grades: 5-12

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Economic Reasoning

Baseball Economics 201
Baseball fans will love this!  Students will analyze salaries of MLB teams and determine if the players are overpaid and if the owners are in it for themselves or the teams.

Grades: 6-12

Snowman Soup (pdf)
Learn the ins and outs of creating a product, naming it, considering costs and expenses, and market it in a fun, hands on activity.

Grades: 7-12

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Entrepreneurism

Lemonade for Sale
Lemonade for Sale
by Stuart J. Murphy
ISBN: 0-06-446715-5
Lemonade for Sale
Students listen to a story about children who produce and sell lemonade to raise money for their clubhouse.

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan (pdf)

Used with Permission: The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Grades: 4

Snowman Soup (pdf)
Learn the ins and outs of creating a product, naming it, considering costs and expenses, and market it in a fun, hands on activity.

Grades: 7-12

Entrepreneurship Lesson Plan (pdf)
This lesson helps students become familiar with the characteristics of entrepreneurs and become acquainted with famous entrepreneurs.

Grades: 9-12

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Financial Behavior

 

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Financial Goals

Decision Making and Goal Setting Lesson Plan (pdf)
Help students become familiar with the decision making process with this lesson.

Grades: 5-12

Financial Values, Attitudes, and Goals (pdf)
This document contains valuable background information on goals, values, and attitudes towards money, as well as classroom activities.

Grades: 9-12

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General Teacher Information

How to Teach Health Insurance to Kids

Step 1 - Have the kids count the number in the group. For teaching purposes let us say it is 30. Have the kids sit together by gender. Within each gender, have the kids sit by month of birth, oldest to youngest.

Step 2 - Tell the kids that boys and girls need medical treatment at a different frequency and that age makes a difference. The older the person is, the more frequently they will probably need medical treatment.

Step 3 - Tell the kids each group no matter how big or small is called a "risk pool." They are a risk pool. Each risk pool is unique based on its size, gender makeup and age makeup.

Step 4 - Tell them that the amount that is charged for health insurance is called the "premium" and is based on the makeup of the risk pool by gender, age and "claims experience," or history of past claims.

Step 5 - Tell each student that based on their risk pool you are going to pretend that their premium is two dollars per month. That is $60.00 per month or $720.00 of premium for the year for the risk pool. If two people become ill during the year and their costs are $100.00 each, then the "health insurance company" or risk pool pays $200.00. If these are the only two people to need coverage then the company has done well. They simply carry the remaining $500.00 forward to the next year adding the next $720.00.

Step 6  - Tell the kids that the bills people turn in are called "claims" and, often, there is a "deductible" or "co-pay" amount that the person who is insured must pay towards each bill themselves to help the risk pool survive. Tell the kids the people covered in the risk pool are called "insureds."

Step 7 - Tell the kids that sometimes there are more claims than the risk pool collected in premiums. Each year part of the premiums collected have to go to a "reserve" which is used as an emergency fund. Tell the kids if, for example 5 kids from their group get ill and have claims of $200.00 or a total of $1,000.00, then the pool must pay an additional $280.00 on top of the $720.00 from reserves.

Step 8 - Teach the kids that the reserves now have to be replaced so they will be charged an additional 78 cents ($280.00 divided by 12 then 30), for a monthly premium of $2.78.

Step 9 - Summarize for the kids that health insurance is most simply a business that collects money from many people, many who won't become ill, so that the impact on those who do become ill is minimized. The company also assesses what to charge based on group age and gender makeup and claim history.

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Goods and Services

Money, Money, Money, Honey Bunny! (pdf)
Description – This fun lesson teaches students the difference between goods and services and spending and saving.  The fun activities engage students in learning valuable economic concepts.

Smart Board

Grades: K-3

Woof, Woof at Your Service
This lesson helps demonstrate that economic desires can be satisfied by providing goods and services.  Identifies goods and services provided by one small business.

Grades: K-4

Tortilla Factory (pdf)
Students learn about the productive resources—human resources, natural resources, and capital resources—and inter-mediate goods used to make final goods and services.

Grades: 4-6

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Investments

Analogy Lesson Plan (pdf)
This lesson helps students apply their new knowledge to prior knowledge.  They make an analogy between investments and something they are familiar with to find similarities.

Grades: 6-12

Why Study the Stock Market (pdf)
This lesson is designed to spark student interest in the stock market and help the teacher learn what students already know or believe about the stock market.

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Insurance

How to Teach Health Insurance to Kids (pdf)
Teaching health insurance to kids involves teaching a combination of math, probabilities and health insurance concepts. This article is designed to guide the teacher through the steps necessary to acquaint kids with the way health insurance works.

Grade: 4-6

Hurricane Game

 The Hurricane Game Video

The YouTube video clip is of an instructor guiding students though a simulation of buying hurricane insurance. He uses monopoly props such as money and houses to explain the concept of insurance. Based on rolling dice, students are able to see the probabilities of having their homes damaged from a hurricane. They also learn about the costs associated with coverage.

Teachers can use the clip to introduce the scenario, or duplicate it in their own classroom following what the instructor does on the video clip.

Grade: 8-12

The History of Insurance (ppt)
This is a short plan that helps introduce the topic of insurance. The lesson plan will allow a class to provide a service by donating items and relating it to the insurance concept of pooling. The lesson plan would be good to use after a natural disaster has occurred to provide items to victims while using the topic as a teachable moment. The resource will also take students through the history of insurance.

Student Worksheet Student Worksheet (pdf)

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan - includes worksheets and a PowerPoint presentation.

Grade: 10

Auto Insurance – the Basics
Automobile Insurance: The Basics is a short, 30 minute lesson designed to cover the fundamentals of automobile insurance. Students will understand that accidents happen more than most people think and that they are very expensive when they do happen. The lesson covers what automobile insurance is, how insurance companies classify risk, what determines premium amounts, and finally what the students can do to reduce risks.

This lesson includes a video clip (kind of silly, but makes a point – downloadable), PowerPoint presentation, and vocabulary worksheet on automobile insurance.

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan (30 Minute Version)

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan (60 Minute Version)

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan (120 Minute Version)

Sample worksheet question from 60 minute lesson:
"Angelina, Sam and Miguel were driving to Carmelita’s for dinner. Angelina was talking on her cell phone and totaled her car. Both passengers were not seriously injured but did require medical attention. What type of coverage(s) is needed?"

K-W-L
Prior to beginning the lesson, have students fold a piece of paper in thirds.  At the top of each column created by the fold, label one K, one W, and one L.  In the K column, have students list everything they already KNOW about auto insurance.  In the W column, have them come up with at least five things they WANT to know about auto insurance and write them in the form of a question.  Then present the lesson.  Once the lesson is over, have students list what they LEARNED about auto insurance.  Identify whether or not any of their questions in the W column were answered.  Address any that were unanswered. Have the students share what they learned in small groups.

Grades: 10-12

Building Wealth - Insurance

A classroom set of Building Wealth: A Beginner’s Guide to Securing Your Financial Future (pdf), is available from Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Ask students to give examples of insurance with which they are familiar. (Answers will vary.)

Explain that insurance is a contract between individual policyholders (those who buy insurance) and the insurer (the company that provides insurance). Policyholders pay a premium, an amount that is less than the value of the item they are insuring. When a policyholder incurs a loss, the insurance company reimburses that person from all the premiums that other policyholders have paid. Premiums are set by the insurers based on the insurers’ cost and the probability or likelihood of loss.

Point out that insurance is available for many types of risks. Have students read pages 25–28 in Building Wealth. Distribute copies of Insurance Worksheet, and have students answer the questions in the spaces provided.

Insurance Worksheet Insurance Worksheet (pdf)

In small group discussions, have students analyze why we buy various types of insurance.  Have each group discuss the consequences of NOT having insurance.  What alternatives are there to insurance?  Have one person from each small group present their conclusions to the class.

Grades: 10-12

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Loans and Borrowing Money

Four Dollars and Fifty Cents
The lesson is based on the book, Four Dollars and Fifty Cents

Shorty Long is in debt to everyone; when they start demanding payment, he figures death is the only way out, and fakes his demise--coffin and all. Widow Macrae isn't fooled, though, and sits up all night to watch the body. If Shorty doesn't move by morning, she'll nail the coffin and bury it. And if he does move, he pays up. As luck would have it, a group of on-the-run bandits happen upon the phony corpse and, out of respect, try to close the coffin. But to do so they'll have to trim Shorty's very long nose, and he jumps up to protest. The shocked robbers take flight, leaving their loot behind, and Shorty is saved in more ways than one.

This complete lesson plan has discussion question, worksheet, vocabulary and extension ideas to go along with the book.   Do the worksheets with the class to make it easier for the 3rd graders.

Worksheet Lesson Plan (pdf) - See pages 10 & 11

Grades: 3

A Car for College?
This is a four-day computer-based research project in which students develop their own hypothetical budgets for buying a vehicle.  Students first learn about interest rates by completing an online scavenger hunt using a Federal Reserve Web site. They also discover minimum wage rates and youth employment regulations by searching U.S. Department of Labor Web sites. They research vehicle Web sites for auto information and car loans, determine monthly payment options using an online amortization calculator, and ultimately create a pre- and post-vehicle budget on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.  On the last day, students outline their budgets and the type of vehicles they select in a PowerPoint presentation.  An assessment rubric is provided for the teacher to use in grading the students.

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan (pdf)

Music Connection Music Connection

Grades: 9

Payday Loans FACTS Newsletter(pdf)
Payday loans are short-term cash loans based on the borrower's personal check held for future deposit or electronic access to the borrower's bank account.  These worksheets help student become familiar with the hazards of payday loans.  Math included.

Grades: 9-12

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Monetary and Fiscal Policy

You Can Bank on It! (pdf)
Students will thoroughly understand the purpose and functions of the Federal Reserve System and its effect on our nation’s economy. They will learn that monetary policies are decisions by the Federal Reserve System that lead to changes in the supply of money and the availability of credit. Changes in the money supply can influence overall levels of spending, employment, and prices by inducing changes in interest rates charged for credit and by affecting the levels of personal and business investment spending.

Grades: 7-12

Focus on Economic Data: Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy, March 20, 2013
This lesson focuses on the January 27, 2010, press release by the Federal Reserve System's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on the current Federal Reserve monetary policy actions and goals. This lesson is intended to guide students and teachers through an analysis of the actions the Federal Reserve is taking and can take in influencing prices, employment, and economic growth. Through this lesson, students will better understand the dynamics of the U.S. economy, current economic conditions and monetary policies.

Grades: 10-12

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Money

Coin Motion Game
Students will recognize coins and their values and count coin groups.  This activity includes physical activity.

Grades: K-2

Free Money Math Worksheets
Worksheets for counting, adding, and subtracting money.

Grades: K-2

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Opportunity Costs & Tradeoffs

Spending Goals
This quick worksheet will help students identify short term, long term, and sharing goals.  They can determine items to be saved for and the date they would like to achieve their saving goals.

Student Worksheet (pdf)

Grades: K-2

What is Money? (pdf)
These worksheets help students identify different coins and their values.

Grades: K-2

Yard Sale
After the teacher reads Yard Sale, the class discusses spending decision of the animals in the story. Students learn a decision-making process and how to identify their opportunity cost.

Visual 1 Lesson

Grades: 1

Opportunity Cost
This lesson focuses on the tough choices that consumers are faced with in today’s world. So many innovative and exciting products and services are available. Therefore, a decision-making process is needed which includes considering of opportunity cost. This is necessary to shape future consumer behavior.

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Other

K-2 Money Skills
When you teach children about money, you provide opportunities for them to practice counting, to work with the terms more than and fewer than and to increase their ability to understand other mathematical concepts such as fractions and decimals in later grades.

Grades:  K-2

The Ice Cream Shop
Welcome to the Ice Scream Shop. Here, all the ice cream is made and sold by creepy creatures. There’s a job opening for a new cashier—and the job is yours! (The owner wanted to hire a werewolf, but you’ll do.)

As cashier, it’s your job to make change for your customers. (We had a cash register, but the 7-foot lizard that used to work here broke it.) At this ice-cream shop, the only problem you may have is customers who are frozen with fear!

Grades:  3-6

Money, money, money!
When working in a business that handles money, students need to be able to make correct change. This lesson will give students practice working with a partner ordering items, adding the total cost, taking money and giving correct change.  Quick activity!

Lesson Extension: Have the students choose the items they want to purchase from a menu. Ask them to add up the total cost of the items and then pay for it with their play money. The other partner has to give back the correct change.

Student Worksheet (pdf)

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan

Grades: 4-5

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Productivity

Productivity and Human Capital
In the lesson plan, students get to know Geraldine, a goat, who tells the story of a Navajo weaver who produces a rug using the goat's mohair.

Grades: K-3

Lemonade for Sale
Lemonade for Sale
by Stuart J. Murphy
ISBN: 0-06-446715-5
Lemonade for Sale
Students listen to a story about children who produce and sell lemonade to raise money for their clubhouse.

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan (pdf)

Used with Permission: The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Grades: 4

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Retirement Planning

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Saving/Spending

Spending Goals
This quick worksheet will help students identify short term, long term, and sharing goals.  They can determine items to be saved for and the date they would like to achieve their saving goals.

Student Worksheet (pdf)

Grades: K-2

Spending Plans (pdf)
In this activity, students decorate envelopes to use to save their money.  They also complete a worksheet and quiz to help them identify items they can use to save money.  They have the opportunity to practice making choices based on the amount of money that is provided.

Grades:  K-2

Why We Save (pdf)
Fun lesson plan with an entertaining story to reinforce the concept of saving.

Grades:  K-3

Saving and Investing (pdf)
Students are able to research different options for saving their money.  They learn that when money is in a savings account, they earn interest.  These worksheets help them learn about interest and the value of stock.  A quiz is included in the PDF document.

Grades: 3-6

Savings
This lesson helps students understand saving and why it is important.  It will also help students understand interest.

How Money Can Grow Student Magazine Pages and Worksheets: How Money Can Grow (pdf)

Grades: 3-6

NYSE Made Easy
This lesson will help students to understand the terms that are associated with the New York Stock Exchange. It will also help students to read a stock market report found in any major newspaper or online.

Complete Lesson Plan Complete Lesson Plan

Grades: 9-12

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Scarcity & Choices

Spending Goals
This quick worksheet will help students identify short term, long term, and sharing goals.  They can determine items to be saved for and the date they would like to achieve their saving goals.

Student Worksheet (pdf)

Grades: K-2

A Good Choice
An individual’s needs are different than his wants.  Students will be able to determine the difference between needs and wants in real life situations.

Pass out A Good Choice Worksheet and pencils.

A Good Choice Worksheet A Good Choice Worksheet (pdf)

Read each sentence to the students and instruct them to circle the answer they like best.

Review the sheets together and discuss the difference between needs and wants.  The students should realize that in some situations more than one item may be necessary, i.e., to take a bath you need both soap and water.  In other cases, what is necessary for one person may not be necessary for someone else, i.e., the flat tire on a bicycle may require a new tire in some situations.

Grades: 1

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Supply & Demand

What is Money? (pdf)
These worksheets help students identify different coins and their values.

Grades: K-2

Supply and Demand – Lessons from Toy Fads
Ever wonder how many Hula Hoops have been sold and why they are still being sold?  This lesson addresses the concepts of supply and demand using Silly Bandz and Hula Hoops to interest students. 

Grades: 9-12

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Taxes

IRS Tax Simulations
You've heard of reality TV. Now it's reality taxes! Apply what you've learned by putting yourself in the shoes of 20 different taxpayers while you explore the ins and outs of filing tax returns electronically!

Grades: 7-9, 10-12

Preparing a 1040EZ Income Tax Form
This lesson takes students through the process of filling out a 1040EZ form.  Students will understand the relationship between at W2 and a 1040EZ form as well.

Grades: 9-12