September 2021 - Financial Literacy

Welcome to a new school year and a new year of mathematical thinking!

The math curriculum has financial literacy expectations from grades 1 to 9 and 11.  Here are some suggestions for activities that families can do together to support learning about financial literacy. 

Primary (Grades 1 to 3):

  • Play sorting games with coins and to help children learn the names and denominations of the coins.
  • Play games that involve representing the same amount of money in different ways.
  • Play games that involve simple transactions and getting change with whole dollar amounts and amounts of less than a dollar.

Junior (Grades 4 to 6):

  • Play games that involve purchasing multiple items and getting change with whole dollar amounts.  As children become more confident, introduce items priced in dollars and cents.
  • Play “How much for one?”  (e.g.,  if 8 boxes of facial tissue cost $12, how much for one?).  As children become more confident, introduce the idea of estimating the cost of one.
  • Talk about methods of payment (e.g., cash, credit card, debit card, cheque).
  • Talk about earning, saving and spending.
  • Talk about borrowing and the concept of interest.

Intermediate/Senior (Grades 7 to 12):

  • Talk about what it means to create a budget.
  • Talk about interest rates offered by banks.
  • Talk about loyalty programs offered by companies.
  • Talk about different types of bank accounts and the related costs.
  • Talk about credit cards and debit cards and the related costs.
Department