North Dakota Securities Department and NTC invite you to use these e-learning resources to teach your students about the importance of financial literacy. The digital materials below are designed to get your students excited about understanding this important subject.
Want to know the best way to use the related games, handbooks, Money Smart 2.0 curriculum, and other lessons to educate your class? Watch this short video and learn how to add Spend It or Save It to your curriculum!
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This 35-minute financial literacy program is for grades 6-8. Through entertaining sketches featuring a variety of characters, Spend It or Save It teaches the following educational points:
Laughing while learning, your students will experience important lessons about financial literacy.
We know your class time is extremely valuable. That’s why we ensure that all of our digital e-learning materials are aligned with state and national educational standards. It’s important that the Spend It or Save It program adds to your existing curriculum and keeps students on track with their ongoing learning.
See below for details about how each digital activity aligns with educational standards and corresponds with your state’s curricula.
The Spend It or Save It student activities page features games, educational lessons, downloadable PDFs and more! Access in the classroom or at home to learn more about financial literacy and have fun joining the Spend It or Save It!
This downloadable PDF features in-depth articles relating to the subject. The handbook is written in a way that appeals to both students and parents, allowing students to bring the handbook home to share.
This downloadable PDF features colorful artwork, entertaining games and activities, and expanded information to complete your understanding of energy efficiency. Read on your own, with your class, or with friends and family and get to know the characters of Spend It or Save It.
Your students can enhance what they learn from the program with these fun, hands-on lessons and experiments. These lessons can be done in the classroom or easily adapted for students to do at home with their families.
Follow up with your students to make sure they enjoyed and learned from these activities.
Money Smart 2.0 is an exciting interactive exploration of the concepts of money. This standards-aligned, cross-curricular curriculum is designed to promote financial understanding in middle school students. You can use Money Smart 2.0 to add engaging and enriching activities to Math, English Language Arts and Social Studies lessons while also helping your students build the foundation to become financially responsible adults.
You’ve covered the basics of financial literacy. If you really want to dig deep with your class, explore the expanded information and additional resources below.
These materials provide even more insight into the history, science, usage and importance of financial literacy. There are also helpful links and tips.
Credit unions are non-profit organizations that serve their members. Like banks, credit unions accept deposits, make loans and provide a wide array of other financial services. But as member-owned institutions, credit unions provide a safe place to save and borrow at reasonable rates. Credit unions are owned and controlled by the people, or members, who use their services. Credit unions operate to promote the well-being of their members.
The profit made by credit unions are returned back to members in the form of reduced fees, higher savings rates and lower loan rates. Members of a credit union share a common bond, also known as the credit union’s “field of membership.” Members often have shared interests and appreciate participating in an institution designed to help other members.
Credit unions may provide:
The cooperative structure of credit unions creates a cycle of mutual assistance toward the common goal of the financial well-being of members.
Source: https://www.mycreditunion.gov/about-credit-unions/credit-union-different-than-a-bank
Follow-up, formative assessments for you to gauge the learning of your students are especially important with e-learning. Below are some suggestions for how you can assess your students’ performance quickly and effectively.
These assessments are easy for you and your students to complete and help ensure your class is getting the maximum educational value, retention and engagement from the related digital activities.
| Middle School Educational Assessments | Live Show/strong> | Hands-on lessons | Digital games | Interactive activities | PDFs & Print materials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw a concept map | X | ||||
| Write three things another student may misunderstand about the topic | X | X | |||
| Journal reflection | X | X | X | ||
| Submit screenshot of completed activity | X | X | |||
| Hand in completed activity | X | ||||
| Have students make collages relating to the topic | X | X | |||
| Have students host their own talk show relating to the topic | X | ||||
Each student rolls a die and briefly answers aloud a question based on the number rolled:
|
X | ||||
| Present students with an analogy prompt: “The concept being covered is like ____ because ____.” |
X | X |
We take your feedback and suggestions very seriously. Hearing from educators with firsthand experience with our programs ensures that we continue to improve our digital resources, making them as beneficial as possible for you and your students.
Please complete this brief, two-minute evaluation to let us know what you thought. Enter the code you received on the half sheets from our actors or call us for your access code.
Thank you for your time and valuable input.