Apr 23, 2023

How-To Guide: Canva for Education and NGPF Templates

NGPF partnered with Canva for Education to design 30 NEW financial literacy templates, and they’re ready for your classroom right now! Here’s how you can use these vibrant Canva templates in your personal finance classroom.

Why is NGPF partnering with Canva for Education?

In June 2022, we met some of Canva for Education’s awesome team for the first time at ISTELive in New Orleans. Needless to say, we got excited when we learned what they were doing with Canva's stunning interactive templates for classrooms everywhere. Plus, when we conducted a post-ISTE poll of the NGPF community, Canva was at the top of the list of organizations teachers said NGPF should partner with!

So - after lots of hard work and collaboration across three continents - here we are with our NEW Canva for Education & NGPF Template Collection! We hope you’ll love it. Let us know what you think, and don't forget to tag our partner @CanvaEdu with all the exciting ways you're using the new collection!

How to find the Templates from Canva for Education and NGPF

Search “next gen personal finance” or “ngpf” in the Canva search bar to find our full partner template collection, or use this direct link. Then, choose and personalize your favorite templates for your classroom. It’s that easy!

Why use Templates from Canva for Education and NGPF?

  1. Student Choice. Canva for Education templates allow students to express their creativity within any topic. Why not personal finance?
  2. Flexibility. Many of these Templates can be used as extensions of popular NGPF Activities like PLAY: The Bean Game, while others can be used as standalone activities!
  3. Personalization. Each student’s financial journey will look different. Canva for Education makes lessons easy to personalize for each unique student!

How can I tell which templates are designed to work best with existing NGPF activities?

Most Canva Templates that are designed to accompany NGPF activities indicate “This template is best used with…” along with the name of the NGPF activity and instructions on where to find that activity on the NGPF website.

It will typically look something like this:

Inspiration to help you get started!

Let your imagination run wild with Canva for Education and NGPF Templates! Try these 5 curated ideas below, or explore the whole collection DIY style!

 

1. "Life Happens" Canva Slides for the Bean Game!

  • Canva DocType: Slides
  • Features: landscape layout, resource pages to help customize

Teachers and students LOVE The Bean Game from NGPF. Wait ‘til you see the projectable “Life Happens” scenario Slides that Canva’s designers have created to pair with this popular budgeting activity from NGPF!

Try Canva Slides with “Life Happens” Scenarios for PLAY: The Bean Game.



2. Get students talking with Canva Whiteboards!

  • Canva DocType: Whiteboard
  • Features: collaborative drag and drop, sketch tools, student reactions

Here’s a “Catch 22”: debt can be a taboo subject of conversation, but talking about debt is also one of the best ways to learn about how it works! Learning is a social, collaborative act, and we love how Canva's Whiteboard Templates help teachers facilitate social, collaborative discussions about complex topics like debt.

Try this Canva Whiteboard about debt categories to get students talking about it! Pairs with ANALYZE: Categorizing Credit from NGPF.



3. Give Your Students a Creative Outlet with Canva Infographics!

  • Canva DocType: Infographic
  • Features: tall vertical layout, customizable color palette, research prompts

Students can express their creativity and design preferences while learning about personal finance! Check out this Cognitive Biases Infographic Template from the Canva for Education and NGPF collection! Pairs with NGPF's Behavioral Economics Unit.

The full collection also includes Infographic Templates for health insurance, career building, and FAFSA deadlines.



4. Anchor your students learning with Canva Posters!

  • Canva DocType: Poster (Print)
  • Features: print-ready design

Teachers often post “Anchor Charts” around their classrooms to help demystify the complex concepts and vocabulary they teach. Canva & NGPF took this idea and ran with it to help personal finance teachers. One idea: customize this Hidden Costs of Car Ownership Canva Poster by clicking 'Customize this template.' Then, remove some of the category details, and assign your students to research the missing hidden costs on their own! Pairs with NGPF's Buying a Car Mini Unit.

From hidden costs to reading paystub, Canva posters can make your classroom walls shine. Find them in the collection today!



5. Engage your student storytellers with Canva Storyboards!

  • Canva DocType: Storyboard
  • Features: resource pages and icons to help students personalize

The first word in personal finance is “personal!” Help your students tell their own unique personal finance stories with Canva’s Storyboard Templates, like this building credit Storyboard. Pairs with PROJECT: Build a Timeline for Your Credit History from NGPF.




 

About the Authors

Sonia Dalal

Sonia has always been passionate about instruction and improving students' learning experiences. She's come a long way since her days as a first grader, when she would "teach" music and read to her very attentive stuffed animals after school. Since then, she has taught students as a K-12 tutor, worked in several EdTech startups in the Bay Area, and completed her Ed.M in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is passionate about bringing the high quality personal finance content and instruction she wished she'd received in school to the next generation of students and educators. When she isn't crafting lesson guides or working with teachers, Sonia loves to spend her time singing, being outdoors, and adventuring with family and friends!

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Christian Sherrill

Former teacher, forever financial education nerd. As NGPF's Director of Growth & Advocacy, Christian is laser-focused on our mission to guarantee all students a rigorous personal finance course before crossing the high school graduation stage. Having paid down over $40k in student loans in the span of 3 years - while living in the Bay Area on an entry level teacher's salary - he's eager to help the next generation avoid financial pitfalls one semester at a time.

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