💰 Finance for Kids

Have you begun to plan your personal finance unit for your 5th-grade students? Are you looking for activities to help your students practice keeping and using financial records (similar to what they find in a checkbook)? We know how important this life skill is, so we have created a fun independent game to help your students with this important skill.

To play, students will draw a scenario card and read it carefully. They will need to decide if the situation described is a deposit or a debit and complete the financial record accordingly. Then, there are 5 questions on the back of the handout to complete.

This resource is intended to be an exciting and engaging way to practice keeping financial records.

Tips for Differentiation + Scaffolding 

A team of dedicated, experienced educators created this resource to support your math or economics lessons. 

In addition to individual student work time, use this financial literacy game to enhance learning through guided math groups or remote learning assignments. 

If you have a mixture of above and below-level learners, check out these suggestions for keeping students on track with the concepts: 

🆘 Support Struggling Students

For struggling students, read the cards together and discuss how to determine whether you will be adding or subtracting the amount. Help students complete the first few rows of the financial record together, and allow for a calculator to be used to check their work.

➕ Challenge Fast Finishers

For students who need an additional challenge, allow them to play multiple times, as they might get competitive about trying to have the best luck and get the largest final balance. As an extension, ask students what the highest possible balance could be. They would need to see which 10 cards have the highest deposit amounts and calculate the total.

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the PDF or editable Google Slides version of this resource. 

This resource was created by Lorin Davies, a teacher in Texas and Teach Starter Collaborator. 

Don’t stop there! We’ve got more activities and resources that cut down on lesson planning time:  

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