What is consumer math?
In a consumer math class, students build their financial literacy skills through lessons focused on money management. Sometimes a consumer math class is called personal finance or personal financial literacy and covers similar topics to those learned in these math courses. The lessons learned in consumer math are directly applicable to the real world.
What topics are covered in consumer math?
- Wants vs. needs
- Writing checks
- Wages and salaries
- Savings and checking accounts
- Building budgets
- Credit
- Discounts
- Sales tax
- Tips and gratuities
- Percent change
- Unit prices and coupons
- Income taxes
- Loans and mortgages
- Interest
- Insurance
What grade is consumer math taught?
Consumer math is typically taught in 11th or 12th grade. High school students begin to have questions about managing money as they think about life after graduation, so learning consumer math at this age feels very relevant to them.
Below are links to consumer math teaching resources, including a 1-credit consumer math curriculum, projects and a word wall to support your students learning this real-world math:
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| Scaffolded Consumer Math Curriculum |
This printable consumer math curriculum makes teaching the course easy with everything ready to go. It includes a student book, student notebook sheets, a teacher's book, PowerPoint notes, editable quizzes, warm-ups, a curriculum map and all answer keys. The income taxes unit is kept current every year with free re-downloads. There is a sample of the curriculum available to try here on its page.
Is consumer math the same as financial literacy?
Students build their financial literacy skills through taking a consumer math class. Consumer math teaches practical, real-world math skills such as budgeting, taxes, loans, interest, credit, and investing.
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| Financial Literacy Word Wall |
This financial literacy word wall includes visuals of all the math vocabulary your students will learn in their consumer math class. Some teachers display all of the pieces at once, while other teachers choose to display current topics and swap them out throughout the year.
The word wall comes in printable color, printable black and white, and no-prep digital in Google Slides all in the same file.
Is consumer math math-heavy?
Consumer math involves calculating a lot of percentages. A bit of algebra also comes in when learning about interest. As a general rule, students do not need to have completed algebra to take a consumer math class. Many students take consumer math instead of precalculus their senior year.
There's a free percentages scavenger hunt here. Students can start on any of the 20 cards. They solve the problem on the card, then find that answer at the top of another card and repeat. Play ends when all cards have been visited.
How does consumer math align with the standards?
This differs based on the curriculum. The Scaffolded Consumer Math Curriculum aligns to the National Standards for Personal Financial Education published by Jump$art. You can read more about the alignment here.
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| Consumer Math Activities Bundle |
This big consumer math activities bundle includes engaging printable and digital activities that build personal financial literacy skills.
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| Fun financial literacy activity ideas |
Fun activities for teaching teens financial literacy - This packed blog post includes links to printable and digital activities for building financial literacy.
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| How to file a 1040 income tax return |
Teaching teens how to file a 1040 tax return - This post shares a 1040 cheat sheet and links to a set of task cards that teach students how to file federal income taxes. Both are updated every year.
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| Budget Project |
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| Unit price task cards |
There is a free set of unit price task cards in my blog's free math resource library.
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| Making change task cards |
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| Buy a Car Project |
