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Financial Education for Educators

Find teaching tools, resources, activities, and more for educators, parents and those who help to educate youth. Also explore how to serve youth in our community and how to connect to youth programs.

Helpful Links
For Educators

Professional Development For Educators

  • Credit Abuse Resistance Education Program (C.A.R.E) This program is a one-hour, interactive presentation by judges and lawyers focusing on the proper use of credit cards, the cost of credit, the effects of credit card use, and the economic and personal effects of credit card abuse.  It was developed to educate young people, mainly high school juniors and seniors, about the hazards and pitfalls of credit card use and abuse.  To arrange a presentation, please contact the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts at 816-512-1883 (Missouri) or 913-735-2110 (Kansas) or contact Kerry Brown at Kerry_Brown@mow.uscourts.gov.
  • Council for Economic Education offers both online and in-person professional development opportunities for educators throughout the country.  To find in-person workshops in your area, please visit our Activities by State page, where you can find the website and contact information for the CEE affiliate closest to you.
  • Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City – Teacher workshops are available every summer and webinars are offered year-round on a variety of topics. Both are free to K-16 educators and education professionals and feature hot topics tied to economics and personal finance.
  • Kansas Council for Economic Education – Resources to equip Kansas teachers to educate Kansas students (K-12) on the principles of economics and personal finance.
  • Kansas State Department of Education – Kansas classroom educators can learn about certification procedures and requirements.

Financial Education Teaching Tools

The following list highlights K-12 curricula that aligns to content standards and is designed to promote financial understanding in young people. The curricula address the concepts of budgeting, credit, saving, investing and more through hands-on classroom-ready lessons and activities.

  • EconEdLink – Links to lessons, interactive tools, professional development opportunities and student financial literacy competitions across the country.
  • Federal Reserve Education – Equips educators, educates students and empowers consumers through lesson plans, games, activities, online courses, multimedia-based tools and more, searchable by grade range, topic, correlation to national content standards and format. Features over 250 free resources tied to personal finance concepts.
  • Jump$tart Coalition – Showcases an online library of financial education resources for teachers, parents, caregivers and anyone committed to financial smarts for students.
  • Money As You Learn – Offers educators texts, lessons, and tasks that connect the Common Core to real life applications while also equipping students with the knowledge needed to make smart financial decisions.
  • Practical Money Skills For Life – Helps consumers, educators, parents, policymakers and students of all ages learn the essentials of personal finance through articles, games and lesson plans.

National Personal Finance Standards for K-12 Education

 

Helpful Links
For Activities & Games

Federal Reserve Online Activities

Learn financial education basics through these online games and activities.

  • Alternative Financial Services – explore the costs and benefits of various alternative financial services, such as payday loans, pawn shops, car title loans, etc. compared to more traditional financial services. This is a Federal Reserve Online Activity.
  • Is College Worth It? Calculator – computes your return on a college degree. This is a Federal Reserve Online Activity.
  • Personal Finance 101 – This Federal Reserve Online activity simulates real-life personal finance situations through online chats with financial experts:

– Buy Here Pay Here – Discusses ‘buy here pay here’ car dealerships

– Car Insurance – Covers the ins and outs of car insurance

– Rent to Own – Walks through a rent-to-own agreement

– 1040EZ – Explains how to complete a 1040EZ form

– All About Debit Cards and Overdraft Fees – Answers questions about overdraft fees

– How to Get a Car Loan – Details the process for getting a loan

– How to Open a Bank Account – Steps through opening a bank account

– Payday Loans – Details the costs of utilizing payday loans

– Prepaid Debit Cards – Talks about how to use prepaid cards

  • Personal Finance 101 Forms Explained – This is a Federal Reserve Online activity provides up-close view of financial forms: 1040EZ, Credit Card Statement, W4, Credit Card Disclosure, Credit Report

Online Games & Activities

  • EconEdLink – Use technology to help teach economics and financial literacy through simulations, games, videos and other interactives.

– Buying a Home (English and Spanish) – use these calculators to learn what to consider when entering the housing market

– College Activity (English and Spanish) – learn how you can save for college to help minimize student loan debt

– Family Finances Activity (English and Spanish) – test yours budgeting skills through decision-making within a family setting

 

  • H&R Block Budget Challenge – Learn and practice real-world money management skills such as paying bills, managing expenses, saving money, investing in retirement and more in real time.
  • Life Values Quiz – Most of us don’t realize what’s behind the thousands of financial decisions we make every year. And, if we are in a relationship, we are even less certain about why our partners make the decisions they do. If you want to demystify your money behaviors, start here with the Life Values quiz. – See more at: http://www.smartaboutmoney.org/Tools-Resources/LifeValues-Quiz#sthash.fAz0LuCf.dpuf
  • The Mint – Try activities, challenges and calculators that deal with spending, saving, borrowing, earning and more.

– Be Your Own Boss Challenge – take a quiz to find out if you might be a good fit for running your own business

– Credit Card IQ Quiz – find out how much you know about credit

– Spending Challenge – learn about how your choices can affect your money management

– What Kind of Spender Are You? Quiz – answer questions to find out your spending habits

– When Will You Be a Millionaire Calculator – find out how long it can take to be a millionaire based on your savings choices

– Countdown to Retirement – learn about retirement through a lifestyle choice game

– Financial Football – test your money management skills through a football simulated game

– Financial Soccer – test your money management skills through a soccer simulated game

– Money Metropolis – learn about savings goals and ways to save

– Peter Pig’s Money Counter – practice sorting and counting money

  • Jump$tart’s Reality Check – Fill in the choices in this quick and easy online calculator to see if you can afford your dream life. You might be surprised at how much that life will cost.

Helpful Links
For Volunteering

Volunteer To Serve In A School

  • Junior Achievement – Prepares young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace.
  • Lead to Read – Connects trusted, caring adult volunteers with 1 – 4 grade kids in urban schools for 30 minutes per week.
  • Mad City Money – Gives youth a taste of the real world within a school setting as they experience a budget simulation activity.
  • Reality U – Helps students understand some of the “realities” involved in preparing for an employable future and adulthood as they learn about income, debt, credit, and the cost of raising a family.
  • Turn the Page – Works to mobilize the community to achieve reading proficiency at grade level or above for all 3rd graders in Kansas City, Missouri.
  • Teach Children to Save – Pairs Kansas City metro area K – 3 grade classrooms with community volunteers each April for a 45-minute classroom-ready lesson about the importance of saving.

Become A Youth Mentor

  • Awesome Ambitions – Serve as a role model, a teacher, a leader, a supporter, and a cheerleader for young women in their efforts to define their own success, plan how to achieve that success and believe that they are capable of accomplishing and deserving of success.
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters – Help shape a child’s future for the better by becoming a “big” and empowering them to achieve.
  • Cap4Kids – Find a comprehensive listing of social service agencies that serve the youth of Kansas City and their families, provided by the Children’s Advocacy Project of Kansas City.