Personal Finance Activity

As your students work their way through their financial literacy journey, they will learn about the different methods of payment when purchasing goods and services. Teach Starter has created a mini-book that you can use with your students when learning about paying with:

• Credit card
• Debit card
• E-payment
• Cash 
• Check

The mini book is 16 half-size pages. There is a fill-in-the-blank version and a completed version. There is also an answer key for the student response pages.

Students should be guided through the notes and discuss them as a class or small group. Allow students to share experiences with various methods of payment. Students can color the pages of the mini-book and fill in the blanks as they go. The pages can be bound to make a book or glued in their notebook.

The goal of this mini-book is to provide students with an engaging opportunity to take notes and practice the methods of payment.

Tips for Differentiation + Scaffolding 

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

In addition to individual student work time, use this mini-book to enhance learning through guided math groups, whole class lessons, 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, provide the completed version of the book to ensure their notes are accurate. As you work through the unit, allow the student to use the resource as a reference as needed. Provide many reminders of the main differences, especially between debit and credit cards, as those are easily confused. Post an anchor chart for reference as well, which could be made collaboratively by the class.

➕ Challenge Fast Finishers

As enrichment, assign groups or individual students to represent the five methods of payment. Present a scenario, such as sending your child to school with money for the book fair, and ask groups to debate about which method of payment should be used. The students can argue from the perspective of the method of payment, such as “I’m a check, and you should use me because…”

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. 

After printing, assemble the pages and staple them along the left-hand side to secure them.

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:  

teaching resource

Gross and Net Income – Task Cards

Explore the difference between gross income and net income with this set of 24 task cards.

teaching resource

Balancing a Budget – Worksheet

Practice how to balance a budget with this financial literacy worksheet.

teaching resource

Math in the Real World - Budgeting Planning Project

Introduce your students to the world of making a budget with an immersive “It’s My Life” budgeting for kids project.