Smart Financial Literacy for Kids Activities and Resources

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Spring is in the air, and it’s the perfect time to teach your students how to make smart money decisions. Why? Because April is Financial Literacy Month! That doesn’t mean you need to bust open the piggy banks, but you can show kids how to think about and manage money by adding budgeting, saving, and investing to your curriculum. Help them become financially responsible by emphasizing the importance of financial literacy for kids.

Financial literacy isn’t just about math — it’s about building early life skills and making smart choices for the future. So, get ready to set your class up for success with financial literacy resources made for elementary students. 

Build money management skills starting in Kindergarten

It’s never too early to teach kids about money. Starting financial literacy for kids at a young age helps them build positive money habits that last a lifetime. While you won’t dive into complex topics like investing or retirement accounts, basic concepts — like saving, sharing, and spending — are a great foundation. 

Use these activities to help students make thoughtful decisions and build financial confidence. Many align with CCSS Math Standards that cover counting money and comparing coins.

• Count & Sort Coins: Give students pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. Let them sort, count, and compare each coin while discussing how these coins can be used to purchase items.
• Create a piggy bank:  Let kids build and decorate their own piggy banks. Use this opportunity to discuss the importance of saving and why it’s beneficial to save money.
• Create a classroom currency: Have a classroom currency that you use to pay kids for weekly jobs. They can use their earnings to buy items from a classroom treasure box or save it for later.
• Play the more or less game: Place price tags on specific things in the classroom. Give students play money and ask them if an item is more or less than they have, then discuss how they might make a purchase.
• Use books to help with budgeting: Read and discuss books like Bunny Money by Rosemary Wells or A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams. These stories help teach about budgeting and money management. 

Needs and Wants Sort Activities
By Nikki and Nacho
Grades PreK-1st

Kindergarteners will love this fun coloring and sorting activity. The resource includes vocabulary cards, individual sorting activities, graphic organizers, and coloring sheets. It’s perfect for centers and small groups, helping students understand the important difference between needs and wants. 

Explore dollars and cents with 1st and 2nd graders

Money is everywhere: That’s why it’s important to help kids learn to earn, spend, and save it wisely. Allow your students to become financial detectives as they explore cash, purchases, and savings. Through hands-on learning, they’ll make real-world connections about the importance of positive financial decisions. 

You can also link these activities with CCSS Math 1.MD.C.4, 2.MD.D.10, and 2.MD.C.8, focusing on interpreting data and solving problems with money. 

• Track the money: Have kids make crayon rubbings of different coins on paper and arrange them from least to greatest value. 
• Decorate a savings jar: Let your classroom decorate a savings jar. They can earn pretend money through behaviors and chores to get rewards like extra recess or a pizza party. 
• Explore what to do with $100: Tell students they have $100 and ask them how they would spend or save it. Help them create a simple budget for their $100. This can also double as a cross-curricular writing activity.
• Play a barter and trade game: Give each student toys or items and explain bartering. Set simple rules for the activity where you let them trade, then reflect together to reinforce the concept.
• Set a savings goal: As a class, set a savings goal and provide classroom currency to deposit into a class piggy bank. Track progress on a graph until a certain goal is reached.
• Create a budget: Use a simple worksheet with categories for spending, saving, and giving. Have students cut out and glue pictures from a magazine for each category.
• Discuss income: Give students a sample pay stub and discuss the different aspects of income (gross income, taxes, etc.).

Grade 2 Money – Identifying & Counting Money with US & Canadian Money to $5
By Proud to be Primary 
Grades: 1st-2nd
Standards: CCSS 2.MD.C.8; 2.OA.A.1, B.2

This comprehensive math curriculum includes activities, coin worksheets, posters, and eight math lessons for teaching coin identification and counting money. You need only this unit to teach U.S. and Canadian money and coins to 500¢, financial literacy, and money word problems!

Goods and Services Worksheets and Sorts including Producers and Consumers 
By Lindsay Keegan
Grades: K-2nd

Economics can be tricky for young learners, but you can make it easier with a fun, hands-on activity. This resource includes anchor charts to teach vocabulary, cut-and-sort activities, a flap book, and labeling exercises. Students can also do a magazine sort and draw pictures of goods. With 27 pages of content, their financial literacy is sure to grow. 

How Much Does It Cost? Work Task Box Activity FREEBIE 
By Adulting Made Easy aka SpedAdulting
Grades: Not Grade Specific

Your kinetic learners need to touch and feel money to truly understand it. These boards allow them to do just that while determining cost. The task box comes with 24 price tags and three board versions. It’s ready to be incorporated into a grocery store game or quick money sorting activity. 

Coin War Money Game 
By Stephanie Trapp
Grades: 1st-2nd
Standards: CCSS 2.MD.C.8

Kids love competition! Make money fun with a war game by having students count coins. Rather than traditional cards, this resource includes cards with coins that kids have to count to find the highest amount. In addition to 144 cards, you get teacher and student directions along with a challenge extension activity. 

Financial Literacy: Spending and Saving 1st Grade 
By Tracy Pippin
Grades: K-2nd

Learning the importance of saving can be challenging — even for adults! Teach kids why it matters with a fun spending and saving activity. This resource includes headers, sorting cards, mini-puzzles, recording sheets, cut-and-paste activities, flap books, and sentence scrambles. It’s the perfect addition to any classroom-wide saving lessons.

Dive deeper into financial concepts with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders

Upper elementary students are ready to dive deeper into financial literacy for kids. They have a basic understanding of economics and have probably bought a thing or two online with their allowance or while grocery shopping with a caregiver. They might also already have a savings account. 

Delve into more advanced topics like the stock market and investing with these grade levels. Many activities align with CCSS standards like 3.OA.D.8, 4.NBT.B.7, and 5.MD.B.2. Foster critical thinking and decision-making skills while building a strong financial literacy foundation for your students.

• Play the stock market: Create fake stocks and have students buy and sell them, offering a simple introduction to investing. 
• Go grocery shopping: Clip out food items from newspapers and circulars. Give students a set budget and have them grocery shop for the week, comparing prices and trying to get the best deals. They should consider wants vs. needs during this activity. 
• Have a price comparison scavenger hunt: Assign students different items and have them compare prices online or in grocery store circulars to try to find the best deal without sacrificing quality. Make it cross-curricular with writing by having them analyze and explain the best choice. 
• Plan a party on a budget: Give students a budget and have them plan a small party. They should research costs for each aspect of the event and stay within budget. 
• Start your own lemonade stand: Give students experience as entrepreneurs by having them plan a lemonade stand. Provide play money as an investment and guide them in making buying, selling, and pricing decisions. Discuss smart and risky investment strategies. 
• Play a savings vs. investing game: Use dice, jars, and play money to show how savings vary from investing. One jar is a savings, while the other is an investment. Assign each number on the dice a different market condition. Compare the two jars at the end of the game. 

Financial Literacy – Balancing a Budget 
By Schoolhouse Diva
Grades: 3rd-5th

Make learning interactive by having them buy a home or car. This activity includes all the documents needed for your class to balance a budget, including the recording sheets. Both Google Slides and print versions are available. 

Personal Finance for Kids| Financial Literacy
By Create Your Own Genius
Grades: 2nd-5th

Financial concepts aren’t hard to grasp when you give students the right scenarios to make them stick. This resource includes real-world examples where kids help with savings, compare prices, and answer critical thinking questions. The bundle has over 15 pages and an answer key included. 

Budgeting, Types of Taxes & Income: TEKS Personal Financial Literacy Activities 
By The Routty Math Teacher
Grades: 5th

Teach your kids all they need to understand about finances in one source. From balancing budgets to understanding income, this mini-bundle covers it all. It includes task cards, teacher notes, worksheets, directions, guiding questions, and answer keys. 

Teaching Financial Literacy for Kids: Resources to Get Started

Financial literacy lessons don’t have to be complicated or boring — they can be fun with the right strategies and tools. Discover interactive, engaging ways to empower the next generation of money-savvy leaders using helpful websites and easy-to-implement ideas. Make financial literacy something your students can get excited about! 

• U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB): Their Money as You Grow page provides fun resources for educators to manage money responsibly, broken up by age group. 
• U.S. Federal Reserve: The Federal Reserve’s education site features resources for teaching money policy, economics, and personal finance.
• FDIC Teacher Online Resource Center: The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) provides videos, educator resources, and a free financial series for elementary and beyond on banking basics, saving, and spending. 
• Marketplace’s “Million Bazillion”: This podcast drops the beat on money knowledge in a simple way that elementary learners can understand. 
• BizKids: Based on a TV series, this initiative delivers money topics like basic financial skills and entrepreneurship through videos and activities designed specifically for younger audiences.  

Figure out finances together with TPT

Financial literacy doesn’t come easily to a lot of students, so making it fun is going to keep them more engaged in the process. Engaging, interactive financial literacy for students keeps them active and learning. If you need more ideas to add to your planbook, you can also find financial literacy resources for elementary on TPT. There, you’ll find dozens more worksheets and real-world projects that are easy to slip into your school day.