Budgeting, saving, and investment strategies alongside practical skills for managing credit, taxes, and banking. Addresses insurance needs, employment income, and major purchase decisions to support comprehensive long-term financial planning.
A comprehensive introduction to various payment methods, including cash, checks, debit cards, and credit cards. Students will explore the advantages and disadvantages of each to make informed financial decisions.
Building essential job-seeking skills, including application completion, interview preparation, and understanding job roles.
Planning social gatherings, managing invitations, and practicing etiquette for holiday and community events.
The capstone unit of the program, where students apply all learned skills in complex, multi-step simulations of independent adult life.
Navigating healthcare settings, identifying body parts and symptoms, and practicing social scripts for making and attending medical appointments.
Building professional habits, understanding workplace social cues, and practicing teamwork in a job setting.
Essential skills for maintaining a household, including chores, laundry, and daily organization.
Practical application of money skills through budgeting, price comparison, and navigating a shopping environment.
Empowering students to speak up for their needs, understand their rights, and communicate effectively in various personal and community situations.
Navigating the community using public transportation, reading schedules, and practicing safety and social etiquette while traveling.
Essential knowledge for identifying hazards, handling tools safely, and maintaining a hygienic cooking environment through visual checklists and simulations.
Foundational materials for the Life Skills Launchpad, including binder covers, dividers, and sequence-wide tracking systems.
Building essential social cues, conversational scripts, and self-advocacy skills for various community and professional settings.
A deep dive into identifying currency, understanding value, and managing basic transactions through visual supports and hands-on practice.
Essential templates, tracking sheets, and the overall framework for the Life Skills program to ensure consistent daily structure and progress monitoring.
Practicing the core skills of independent living, including home maintenance, personal advocacy, and daily scheduling.
Preparing for the workforce with mock interviews, professional communication practice, and on-the-job simulations.
Developing social-emotional awareness through event planning, role-play conversations, and meaningful peer interactions.
Mastering money identification, budgeting, and the mechanics of shopping through a pantry store simulation and real-world problem-solving.
A comprehensive life skills rotation lesson covering budgeting, social interactions at a cafe, job skills (stocking/packing), and self-advocacy through role-play and game-based learning.
A comprehensive lesson on restaurant etiquette covering menu reading, ordering, manners, volume control, tipping, and conflict resolution.
A functional skills lesson focused on navigating a restaurant experience on a budget, covering menu reading, budget planning, social etiquette, and group check splitting.
A high-engagement, sub-friendly lesson where AVID students research, budget, and plan a 3-day dream vacation while applying WICOR strategies and financial literacy skills.
An advanced financial literacy lesson for 8th-grade Social Studies, connecting individual financial choices to broader economic systems and government services. Aligned with AZ Standard 8.E3.1, students analyze the trade-offs of credit, debt, and civic contributions through taxes.
A foundational lesson on personal finance basics, including budgeting, saving, credit, debt, and taxes, designed for 7th-grade Social Studies. Students explore how economic choices impact their future wealth and stability through a navigation-themed exploration.
A lesson covering the four main ways to pay for college: scholarships, grants, work-study, and loans, featuring a budget simulation and a scholarship research activity.
An interactive board game experience covering essential life skills including financial literacy, time management, communication, and career readiness.
A foundational lesson introducing essential banking vocabulary for checking and savings accounts using plain language and visual supports.
A multi-day project where students act as 'Development Studios' to design, build, and playtest their own career-themed board games, focusing on the impact of education and life choices on long-term outcomes.
Students will learn the fundamental concepts of principal and interest by calculating simple interest in two scenarios: borrowing for a purchase and saving for the future. Through these calculations and a video analysis, students will understand how interest acts as both a cost and a reward in the banking system.
Students will learn to calculate and compare simple interest to determine the total cost of borrowing. This lesson uses a real-world scenario where students must evaluate three different loan offers for a $5,000 purchase.
Students review monthly bank statements, identify cleared versus pending transactions, and find discrepancies or errors.
Students learn to log various transactions into a checkbook register and practice calculating a running balance.
Students practice filling out deposit slips, endorsing checks, and writing checks with correct legal formatting.
This lesson covers the requirements for opening a bank account and involves analyzing mock applications and terms of service documents.
Students compare and contrast the features of checking accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit (CDs) to determine which suits specific financial goals.
A final project where students build a complete monthly budget based on a specific persona. They must fit auto, health, and renters insurance into their financial plan while maintaining a positive balance.
Students simulate comparison shopping by evaluating fictional insurance quotes. They learn to look beyond the monthly price to find actual value and appropriate coverage.
Students connect the concept of an emergency fund to insurance deductibles. They learn how a robust savings account allows for more flexible insurance choices.
Students explore the inverse relationship between deductibles and premiums. They model different scenarios to understand how risk tolerance influences financial decisions.
Students identify insurance as a necessary budget category and calculate the percentage of income typical households spend on protection. They analyze a 'mystery receipt' to uncover hidden adult expenses.
Starting with a career goal, students work backward to determine the necessary high school courses and post-secondary steps. They create a 'roadmap' that connects their current 8th-grade course selection to their ultimate objective.
A core simulation lesson where students manage a $10,000 portfolio over four weeks, reacting to market news and tracking their gains or losses.
In this activity, students will evaluate the different ways to handle money—spending, saving, and investing—by matching persuasive arguments with supporting evidence. Students will practice identifying claims and the reasoning that backs them up within a financial literacy context.
A practical financial literacy lesson designed to empower students with unstable housing to manage small amounts of money and plan for a more secure future.
A culminating simulation where students manage a monthly budget based on a mock salary and navigate unexpected life expenses.
Students practice meal planning and grocery shopping within a budget, focusing on cost-effective and healthy choices.
Students analyze various transportation methods, plan routes, and compare the costs of public transit versus vehicle ownership.
Students explore different types of housing, learn key rental vocabulary, and calculate the startup costs for moving into an apartment.
Students learn to distinguish between essential needs and discretionary wants to prioritize spending in an independent living context.
Students select a target career and create a backward-mapped timeline from their dream job to high school graduation.
Students compare the costs and potential salaries of different education paths using simplified financial concepts and discussing student loans.
Students examine skilled trades and apprenticeships, focusing on the 'earn while you learn' model through case studies of various trade careers.
Students work in groups to match specific careers with their required credentials and discuss the relationship between training length and job type.
Students investigate the definitions of university, community college, trade school, apprenticeship, and military service to distinguish the time commitment and outcome of each.
Students calculate the ROI of different education paths by comparing tuition costs and student loan interest against projected starting salaries. This math-focused lesson highlights the financial gravity of college choice.
Students research the differences between public, private, community, and liberal arts colleges. They explore concepts like majors, minors, and campus culture to understand what fits their personality and academic needs.
This lesson focuses on Career and Technical Education (CTE). Students investigate skilled trades, analyzing the cost of trade school versus the 'earn while you learn' model of apprenticeships.
Students learn the hierarchy and time requirements of post-secondary credentials, from certificates and Associate degrees to PhDs. They create a visual timeline showing how long different paths take to complete.
A culminating performance task where students evaluate financing options for a major purchase and analyze 'fine print' in financial offers.
An exploration of the macro-economic role of banks, the flow of money, and the influence of central banking on local economies.
Students act as loan officers to evaluate fictional credit reports and understand the factors that influence credit scores.
A mathematical workshop comparing simple and compound interest, visualizing how debt and savings grow over time.
Students explore the foundational relationship between lenders and borrowers through a classroom simulation, defining key terms like principal and interest.
A comprehensive group project where students research a career, calculate their net income, and create a realistic monthly budget based on local cost-of-living data. Students collaborate to navigate the financial realities of adulthood and present their findings.
Students explore future career earnings, understand the difference between gross and net income, and practice creating a balanced yearly budget focused on saving and financial literacy.
This lesson introduces students to financial literacy through budgeting, saving, and managing income versus expenses. Students will engage in real-world scenarios to build a solid foundation for responsible money management.
Focuses on food preparation and nutrition. Students follow visual recipes to prepare taco ingredients and identify healthy food groups.
Focuses on the financial and social aspects of grocery shopping. Students calculate costs, manage a budget, and learn the social expectations of visiting a store.
A comprehensive personal finance lesson where students learn to manage income, expenses, and savings through a realistic budget simulation and decision-making activities.
Students choose a fictional job, calculate their expected weekly hours, determine their gross pay, deduct taxes using a simplified table, and determine their final take-home budget.
Students practice applying percentage-based tax rates to various income scenarios to predict tax liability. This math-focused lesson reinforces the idea that taxes are proportional to earnings.
This lesson explains the specific purpose of FICA taxes. Students explore the concept of intergenerational support, understanding that these deductions fund healthcare and retirement for current seniors.
Students receive sample pay stubs and perform a 'forensic analysis' to label every box and code. They learn to identify standard abbreviations for federal and state withholdings.
Students define and calculate gross pay based on hourly wages and hours worked. They are then introduced to the concept of net pay through a scenario where 'invisible hands' take a slice of the pie before they receive it.
A hands-on simulation where students file a return for a fictional character and discover if they get a refund.
Students compare the standard deduction to itemizing deductions through a 'shopping spree' analogy and real-world scenarios.
An introduction to Form 1040, focusing on the three main sections: income, deductions, and refunds/taxes owed.
A deep dive into the W-2 form, where students learn to identify income, withholdings, and tax information box by box.
Students explore the critical dates of the U.S. tax system and create a chronological checklist for a successful filing season.
Students explore why certain assets lose value over time, learn to calculate percent change using real-world scenarios (car, phone, handbag), and discuss the financial implications of depreciation on insurance and net worth.
A gamified mastery lesson where students act as forensic accountants to audit pay stubs, identify errors, and confirm final net income calculations.
A comparison of total compensation packages, including health insurance, retirement matching, and paid time off, to evaluate the true value of a job offer beyond the hourly rate.
Students synthesize their understanding of gross pay and taxes to calculate net pay, using real-world employee profiles to understand the difference between promised and received pay.
An exploration of mandatory payroll deductions, including federal, state, and FICA taxes, and how these funds support public services.
Students differentiate between hourly wages and annual salaries, calculating gross pay across various pay periods and accounting for overtime.
Students synthesize their learning by creating a 'Protection Portfolio' for their first hypothetical apartment, selecting coverage limits and deductibles.
Students analyze scenarios involving personal liability, understanding that renters insurance protects more than just their physical stuff.
Students calculate the difference between replacement cost and actual cash value, exploring how depreciation affects insurance payouts.
Students are presented with three different health/property plans and three different 'life profiles.' They must match the best plan to the profile based on lifestyle risks and budget.
Students investigate the difference between In-Network and Out-of-Network providers. They analyze a scenario involving an emergency room visit to understand how choice of hospital affects the final bill.
Students define critical health insurance terms: co-pay, co-insurance, and out-of-pocket maximum. They solve word problems related to visiting a doctor for a flu test or a sprained ankle.
Students inventory the value of the items in their own bedrooms to understand the necessity of renters insurance for protecting personal belongings.
Students present their financial resilience plans and defend their budget choices against 'disaster scenario' stress tests.
Students create a fictional monthly budget for independent life, allocating funds for insurance premiums and emergency savings.
Students explore the mathematical relationship between insurance deductibles and emergency funds, simulating financial risks.
Students investigate the real-world costs of auto and renters insurance, practicing calculating monthly versus annual premiums.
Students categorize expenses into needs, wants, and obligations, specifically identifying insurance as a critical financial obligation that protects assets.
Students investigate the difference between manufacturer warranties and third-party insurance plans using cell phones as the primary case study.
An introduction to the financial side of postsecondary life, including costs, return on investment, and basic budgeting for future goals.
A practical guide to designing a four-year high school course plan that aligns with career goals and graduation requirements.
Exploring diverse postsecondary pathways including 4-year degrees, community colleges, trade schools, military, and apprenticeships.
A deep dive into self-understanding, interests, and personal values to build the foundation for a career and academic plan.
Tools and frameworks for students to research career clusters, labor market trends, and connect their interests to real-world professions.
A restorative justice resource designed for students who have intentionally damaged school technology, focusing on financial accountability and community impact.
A comprehensive middle school lesson on financial literacy and responsible decision-making, integrating TEKS 7th grade math standards for proportional reasoning with SEL concepts like delayed gratification.
A comprehensive introduction to personal finance for middle schoolers, covering the difference between needs and wants, basic budgeting principles, and the importance of saving through a hands-on simulation.
An introductory lesson exploring the differences between traditional fiat currency and cryptocurrency, focusing on centralization, technology, and economic impacts.
A middle school financial literacy lesson exploring economic bubbles through the 1990s dot-com boom and a hands-on lemonade stand simulation. Students learn to distinguish between 'hype' and 'profit' while analyzing how speculation leads to market crashes.
A business and economics lesson for grades 7-9 where students learn the difference between fixed and variable costs through the lens of running a food truck business. Includes a video-guided discussion and a hands-on budgeting worksheet.
Students learn the fundamental formula for profit (Revenue - Cost) through a video, discussion, and an interactive paper-based simulation running a lemonade stand influenced by random 'Fate Cards'.
Students learn the mechanics of retail pricing by exploring the relationship between cost, markup, and selling price through an entrepreneurship challenge where they design and price custom phone cases.
A high-speed lesson teaching students how to estimate the doubling time of investments using the Rule of 72 mental math shortcut. Students compare mental estimates with exact logarithmic calculations to understand the rule's power and limitations.
Students analyze the results of the simulation to evaluate different insurance strategies and reflect on the importance of financial protection.
A high-stakes simulation where students must choose insurance plans and manage their budget against random 'Life Event' cards.
Students simulate a risk pool to understand how insurance companies use collective funds to cover individual losses.
Students define and calculate premiums and deductibles, discovering the inverse relationship between the two through real-world scenarios.
