Personal finance skills, like reading, writing and arithmetic, need to be taught at a young age. Basic skills taught now means fewer problems with debt and credit later.
Take Charge America is pleased to provide lesson plans for teachers to use with students from grades one to five. These lesson plans incorporate personal finance skills with children's books to provide a fun, well-rounded learning experience.
Lesson Plan Pages
Each grade level has 10 lesson plans for a complete unit of study. Each lesson is a PDF document that you can download which includes objectives, materials lists, worksheets and content standards.
Fifth Grade Lesson Plans
Production and Trade
Students share the book Ox-Cart Man, by Donald Hall, to learn about goods and services, entrepreneurial risk, investment in human capital and the circular flow of money. They complete activities on the traits on entrepreneurs and specialization in production.
Starting Your Own Business
Students listen to several chapters from The Toothpaste Millionaire, by Jean Merrill, to learn about starting a business and earning a profit. They complete worksheets on costs and profits and play a game about the risks and incentives of starting a business.
Government Goods and Services
Students share several pages from the book Can’t You Make Them Behave, King George?, by Jean Fritz, to learn about the role of money, government goods and services, and paying for government goods and services. Students complete a worksheet on government goods and services and complete activities in which they examine sales receipts and a paycheck stub.
Students share several chapters from the book Millions, by Frank Cottrell Boyce, to learn about currency and the function of money. They examine their own risk tolerance, play a comparison-shopping game and learn how to be a wise consumer.
Saving and Creating a Personal Budget
Students share several chapters of the book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg, to learn about the role of money, saving and budgets. Students complete a worksheet about keeping track of expenses, analyze information about savings accounts and create a budget.
Saving and Investing
Students share several chapters from the book The Young Investor: Projects and Activities for Making Your Money Grow, by Katherine R. Bateman, to learn about saving and investing. Students complete a worksheet on creating a portfolio, play a saving and investing game, and create a skit for a commercial that explains why it is important to invest.
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.
Short-Term and Long-Term Savings Goals
Students share several chapters from the book The Leaves in October, by Karen Ackerman, to learn about earning an income, saving and setting short-term and long-term savings goals. Students complete a worksheet on earning money, complete an activity in which students establish short-term and long-term savings goals, and practice entering items in a savings passbook.
Currency and Exchange Rates
Students share the book The Story of Money, by Betsy Maestro, to learn about exchange and barter, the function of money, currency and spending money. Students complete a worksheet on currencies, determine the value of the dollar in three different countries using current exchange rates and shop with cashless money.
How Do You Spend Your Money?
Students share several chapters from the book Tarantula Shoes, by Tom Birdseye, to learn about saving, earning an income, trade-off, cost-benefit analysis and spending money wisely. Students complete a worksheet on bargain shopping, do an activity in which they determine which athletic shoe they should buy, and discuss how they can spend their money wisely.
Take Charge Today
Providing no-cost curriculum materials to junior high and high school educators across the nation, Take Charge Today (formerly Family Economics & Financial Education) is designed to teach students about money management skills and the financial planning process. Lessons can be taught independently, in topic modules or as a semester long course.
Take Charge America Institute (TCAI)
Developing research-based educational outreach programs, TCAI encourages students at colleges and universities nationwide to help improve consumer financial literacy and make informed financial choices in today's complex markets.