 cards first is the winner.
1. Make a set of cards for each group (see ideas in sample list above). Each set can have the same cards (Credit Report, Net Worth, Investment, Individual Development Account, Asset Building) or different cards (Set 1: Credit Report, Net Worth, Investment, Individual Development Account, Asset Building; Set 2: Predatory Lending, Credit Scores, Down Payment, Small Business Loan, Financial Literacy; etc.).
2. Stack a set of cards (there should be no more than six cards) in front of you (facilitator) for each team.
3. Instruct each team to select a member to pick a card and draw what is on it.
4. The drawer from each group comes to wherever you have the stacks of cards and views the first card from his/her stack.
5. The drawer then goes back and draws the item for his/her group. The group has to guess what item is. The drawer cannot speak or use words. He/she may write down a word in a multiword phrase that has been spoken.
6. Once a team guesses the item correctly, the same or another drawer from the team comes to the facilitator for card #2 from the team’s stack.
7. The team that gets through its stack first is the winner.
Materials Needed: None
About the Energizer: Participants try to act out whatever “Simon” says by themselves or in teams of two, three, or four. Participants not able to team themselves are invited to sit down as this is an elimination game.
1. Explain that this is just like the game Simon Says, but a little different.
2. Explain that there are four things they will act out:
3. Making a budget – one person (do the actions of making a budget)
4. Making a deposit into an IDA – two people (one person pretends to be counting money to another person acting like a teller receiving the money).
5. Conducting a home inspection – three people (one person doing the inspection, one acting like a realtor, and one acting like an inspector).
6. Celebrating a business opening – four people (everyone jumping up and down and cheering).
7. Invite participants to stand up in a relatively open space in the room.
8. Start calling out instructions: “Simon says make a budget,” “Simon says celebrate a business opening,” etc.
9. As people are unable to join a group, ask them to sit down.
When there are a few people left, declare game over and have participants sit down.
American Idol—Money Songs Edition15
(see Tool #2)
Materials Needed: American Idol Money Songs Edition Worksheet (can be found in tools section of this document); a couple of toy microphones are optional.
About the Energizer: In teams, participants try to come up with as many songs relating to money as they can. After a brief brainstorming period, they compete with each other to see who is standing after a few rounds of singing.
1. Organize participants into teams. Try to have no more than four or five teams.
2. Give the teams 1–2 minutes to brainstorm lists of songs about money.
3. Instruct the teams to keep their brainstorming to a whisper because they don’t want the other teams to hear them. Instruct them to use the worksheet to document their ideas.
4. Using the round robin technique, go around the room asking each team to sing a part of one of the songs it has listed. Tell participants that if another team has already performed a song on their list, they cannot use it UNLESS they sang it incorrectly—words or tune.
5. The winning group is the last group singing. (Note: If after four times around there is still more than one group standing, have them share their lists and the group with the most remaining songs wins.)
Last Revised: January 2010
For more information, please contact the Assets for Independence Resource Center
Telephone: 1-866-778-6037 Email: email@example.com
1 Your Values, Your Choices, Your Money: Facilitator’s Guide, by Inger Giuffrida and Rita Bowen for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans®, 2006.
3 Adapted from Finding Paths to Prosperity: Facilitator Guide Session 1, by Inger Giuffrida and Peter Genuardi, 2001.
4 Adapted from Finding Paths to Prosperity: Facilitator Guide Training Appendix, by Inger Giuffrida and Pete