As the United States economy starts to rebound, a public initiative has sparked a wave of support for broadening the public educational system to include financial literacy as a prerequisite to graduating. Many believe that educating kids about personal finance should start when they are still in elementary school. As a result, many school districts have started to require students to learn about basic financial standards, such as saving, spending, budgeting, and investing their money wisely. These tools and resources equip teachers with supplemental lesson plans, workbooks, activities, interactive games, and other resources to help instill sound financial sense in their students.
- My Money: Teacher Resources: A government resource that equips educators to build financial literacy programs aimed at educating students of all ages.
- US Mint: Financial Literacy Teacher Resources: The United States Mint offers an abundance of activities, lesson plans, and other resources to help educators instill sound financial sense into their students.
- Jump$tart Coalition: Teacher Resources: The Jump$tart Coalition offers comprehensive resources for both teachers and students who wish to improve their understanding in financial literacy.
- Federal Reserve Education: Classroom Resources: A webpage providing an extensive list of publications, activities, lesson plans, tours and programs geared towards financial literacy topics.
- The Mint for Teachers: A website aimed at providing educators with financial literacy ideas for students in the age bracket of six to twelve years old.
- Understanding Taxes: Teacher Resources: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provides a financial literacy program on taxes.
- Utah Education Network: Financial Literacy Lesson Plans: A webpage dedicated to providing educational resources on financial literacy topics, such as banking, budgeting, managing a checking and savings account, consumer fraud, taxes, and insurance.
- Thirteen Ed: Educator Resources: Thirteen Ed provides an extensive list of educator resources equipped with lesson plans geared towards financial literacy.
- Marbles Kids Museum: Financial Literacy Lesson Plans: These lesson plans will teach kids financial basics while having fun at the same time.
- Treasury Direct: Money Math and Lessons for Life: A four-lesson supplement to a full blow financial literacy curriculum program.
- The Council for Economic Education: Educator Resources: A website offering a variety of financial standards-based classroom resources and activities for educators.
- Money Smart: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) provides a comprehensive financial literacy program designed to help low to moderately low-income families learn how to manage their finances to gain more from their money.
- Smart About Money: A financial education initiative started by the National Endowment for Financial Education aimed at enhancing the financial skills of America’s youth.
- Hands On Banking: Financial educators can send their students to complete the Hands on Banking Program for Kids as a homework assignment to reinforce learned financial standards in the classroom.
- PBS Financial Literacy: Teacher Resources: PBS provides several resources for teachers to help supplement the core financial literacy curriculum taught in their classrooms.
- Learn About Money for Kids: Kids.gov offers a selection of money resources that kids can use to learn facts about money and more.
- Money and Kids: Family Education has lots of resources instructing parents on how to effectively teach kids about money and saving.
- Counting Money: ABCya! Has educational games for kids. This game helps kids learn how to count money.
Author: Ben Michaels