These money and economics resources, from micro money topics like personal budgeting to macro money topics like economics, will help you introduce money concepts to kids of all ages.
- Y—Young (PreK-3rd)
- M—Middle (4th-6th)
- O—Older (7th-12th)
- T—Teacher Resources
Money Basics
Counting Coins
Learning how to count, use, and identify coins is an important basic money skill to learn at an early age. These printable worksheets and teaching lessons will help your students master counting money with coins, whether they are just beginning to learn to count coins, or if they need additional practice. Worksheets are customizable for varying abilities and ages. Lessons include United States coins, Canadian coins (including dollar and two dollar coins the Loonie and Toonie), Euros, and British Currency.
US Coins
Money printables, coloring pages, and worksheets for younger students to help to learn how to count money with brief descriptions for each coin. From Enchanted Learning
FunBrain.com - Change maker
This game from Fun Brain helps younger students learn how to calculate their change due after making a purchase.
Money History
Money in Colonial Times
A summery and history of the development of a national currency in the Thirteen Colonies and the United States. Includes an explanation of coins developed from after the War of Independence until current day, and a exploration of Benjamin Franklin's role in creating paper money. From the Federal reserve bank of Philadelphia
Revolutionary Money
Historic pictures of paper currency used by each of the 13 colonies. From Smithsonian Education
Personal Finance
MoneySKILL®
MoneySKILL®, a personal finance course sponsored by the members of the American Financial Services Association, is a highly interactive, reality-based Internet curriculum. "Its purpose is to educate students to make informed financial decisions. The course consists of 34 "How To" modules on income, money management, spending and credit, and saving and investing. The modules are designed to be approximately 40 minutes in length." The course is free and has a built-in grading program so the educator can view the student's progress. Registration is required. Gr 9-12
Money Prodigy
A huge list of FREE personal finance home school curriculum, games, and lessons for kids. You can find resources on just about everything - from financial literacy and building credit, to entrepreneurship and career guidance.
Practical Money Skills
Practical Money Skills is a comprehensive website that includes not only resources for budgeting and consumer math but also lesson plans for teachers divided by topic and age group. Look under For Educator for lessons for preschool through college. You must register (free) to use the lessons. From VISA
Money Instructor
Tools and information to help teach money and money management, business, the economy, and investing. Includes interactive lessons on paying taxes, calculating down payments, and using online banking. From MoneyInstructor.com.
Money Math: Lessons for Life
Money Math is a four-lesson curriculum supplement for middle school math classes, teaching grade 7-9 math concepts using real-life examples from personal finance. The 86-page book is a teacher's guide with lesson plans, reproducible activity pages, and teaching tips. A teacher needs only one copy of Money Math to teach several classes of students. From TreasuryDirect.gov
Federal Reserve Free Resources for Personal Finance and Economics
Econ Lowdown is a FREE platform with online courses and videos for K-12 students that teaches the fundamentals of personal finance and economics. To access, create an Instructor account and choose "home school" or "other organization." Browse and filter the Resource Gallery to build a classroom and enroll students in the lessons you select. You can track their progress and scores on activity assessments.
Economics
EconEdLink
EconEdLink is a website by the Council for Economic Education that is dedicated to economics and personal finance educational resources for K-12 students. The site hosts a large database of 1,000+ lessons, activities, videos, guides, and calculators that you can browse by topic, subject, or grade level.
U.S. Census Economic Indicators
A collection of economic indicator infographics from the U.S. Census Bureau that covers topics like retail sales, business, trade, and home ownership. Students are able to see current indicators, changes over time, and read press releases to help understand the context of what each indicator means.
Federal Reserve Education lessons
The materials are sorted into three main categories: Economics, Personal Finance, and Social Studies/History. For easy reference, each resource is listed with its appropriate audience and media type.
OpenStax: Principles of Economics 2e Textbook
Free college-level textbook with web, ePub, and PDF versions (low cost print version also available) that provides material on a wide range of economic topics to create a great foundation for further learning for high school students.
OpenStax: Principles of Microeconomics 2e Textbook
Free college-level textbook with web, ePub, and PDF versions (low cost print version also available) that covers introductory microeconomics concepts, using real-life examples.
Crash Course Economics (Video)
A 31-part video series by Crash Course on YouTube that breaks down economics into easy-to-digest topical videos. The series starts by exploring the origins and history of economics, and then works through more complicated topics like healthcare, monopolies, and behavioral economics.
What is Economics? (Video)
This video from Miacademy Learning Channel provides a good overview for younger students on the basic economic principals, how they work together, and how they effect our lives.
Economics for Kids: Goods and Services (Video)
An animated video by Teaching Without Frills for K-4 students that helps kids engage in the complex idea of economics in simple ways that relate to everyday life.
PBS Economics
“Investigate how the supply and demand for goods and resources are globally intertwined with videos, lesson plans, and interactive games in Economics. Preview a lesson on personal finance using a video on "Digging Out of Debt," practice running a start-up business with an interactive game, or initiate a classroom debate over the use of vouchers for private schools using a pre-developed lesson plan. The Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed), entrepreneurship, and mercantilism are also explored in Economics.” From PBS
The Library of Economics and Liberty: High School Economics Topics
A large collection of resources from The Library of Economics and Liberty that helps explain economic principals and terms through articles, videos, and reference materials. Resources are organized by topic: Fundamental Economics, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, International Economics, and Personal Finance Economics.
Khan Academy: Basic Economic Concepts
Khan Academy has a large video library for middle school and high school students. The library covers everything from simple supply and demand to more complicated economic models through easy-to-understand videos.
