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Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau
To nd this and other activities, go to:
consumernance.gov/teach-activities
Summer 2022
BUILDING BLOCKS TEACHER GUIDE
Drawing your own business comic strip
Students explore entrepreneurship by reading a story about entrepreneurs
and drawing a comic strip about starting a business.
KEY INFORMATION
Building block:
Financial habits and norms
Financial knowledge and
decision-making skills
Grade level: Elementary school (4–5),
Middle school (6–8)
Age range: 9–11, 11–14
Topic: Earn (Becoming an entrepreneur,
Learning about careers, Making money)
School subject: CTE (Career and
technical education), English or
language arts, Fine arts and performing
arts, Social studies or history
Teaching strategy: Personalized
instruction, Project-based learning
Bloom’s Taxonomy level: Analyze, Create
Activity duration: 75–90 minutes
National Standards for Personal
Financial Education, 2021
Earning income: 4-4, 8-2, 8-9, 12-11
These standards are cumulative, and topics are not
repeated in each grade level. This activity may include
information students need to understand before
exploring this topic in more detail.
Learning goals
Big idea
Understanding what it takes to be an
entrepreneur can help you decide whether
you’d like to start your own business.
Essential questions
§ What are some personality traits, skills,
or characteristics that are helpful for
entrepreneurs?
§ Would you consider starting your own
business?
Objectives
§ Identify some personality traits, skills,
or characteristics that are helpful for
entrepreneurs
§ Consider whether they’d like to start their
own business
NOTE
Please remember to consider your students’
accommodations and special needs to ensure
that all students are able to participate in a
meaningful way.
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BUILDING BLOCKS TEACHER GUIDE
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Drawing your own business comic strip
What students will do
§ Read the Money Monsters Start Their Own Business chapter book.
§ Identify some personality traits, skills, or characteristics that are helpful
for entrepreneurs.
§ Draw their own comic strip about starting a business.
§ Consider whether they’d like to start their own business and why.
Preparing for this activity
□ While it’s not necessary, completing the “Exploring careers in your community”
activity for grades 6–8 or the “Matching interests and talents to careers” activity
for grades 4–5 rst may make this one more meaningful.
□ Have students read Money Monsters Start Their Own Business before
doing this activity.
°
If there’s time, you can order free copies of this book at
https://go.usa.gov/xhWBV or other books in the Money
Monster series from https://go.usa.gov/xAfnS. Shipping
takes three to four weeks.
°
You also can direct students to the PDF version of the book
at https://les.consumernance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_
building_block_activities_money-monsters-start-their-own-
business_book.pdf.
□ Print copies of all student materials for each student, or
prepare for students to access them electronically.
□ Obtain examples of short comic strips to show the students or show them
the example in this guide.
□ Gather art supplies or computers/tablets with design software for students
to create their comic strips.
°
If students create the comic strips digitally, obtain access to a printer so
they can print them.
NOTE
The book includes questions
at the end of each chapter. The
questions are designed to give
students the chance to reect
on the theme of the chapter
and apply it to their own lives.
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BUILDING BLOCKS TEACHER GUIDE
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Drawing your own business comic strip
What you’ll need
THIS TEACHER GUIDE
§ Drawing your own business comic strip (guide)
cfpb_building_block_activities_drawing-your-own-business-comic-strip_guide.pdf
§ Examples of short comic strips (or use the one in this guide)
STUDENT MATERIALS
§ Drawing your own business comic strip (worksheet)
cfpb_building_block_activities_drawing-your-own-business-comic-strip_worksheet.pdf
§ Money Monsters Start Their Own Business (book)
cfpb_building_block_activities_money-monsters-start-their-own-business_book.pdf
cfpb_building_block_activities_money-monsters-start-their-own-business_book.epub
§ Art supplies or computers/tablets with design software
Exploring key nancial concepts
Being an entrepreneur means you start your own business and
earn money from the product or service your company provides.
When you have your own business, you’re responsible for
making it successful so that you can make enough money to pay
yourself and any people who may work for you. Often, adults take
business classes or get a business degree before they become
entrepreneurs. Sometimes people start a business based on
an idea, talent, or passion they have. Adults who start their own
business usually do best when they have nancial support,
mentors, condence, and leadership skills that help them solve
problems, work with people, and do excellent work.
TIP
Because nancial products,
terms, and laws change,
students should be encouraged
to always look for the most
up-to-date information.
Teaching this activity
Whole-class introduction
§ Students should read Money Monsters Start Their Own Business before
doing this activity.
°
The ideal time to do this activity is after students have read to the end of
chapter eight, where the characters achieve their goals for their business.
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BUILDING BLOCKS TEACHER GUIDE
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Drawing your own business comic strip
§ Ask students to name any entrepreneurs they might have heard of.
°
Examples may include LeBron James, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, or Walt Disney.
§ Ask students to name any entrepreneurs in their neighborhoods or any they
know personally.
°
Some examples may include a local restaurant owner, barber/hair stylist, or
auto repair shop owner.
§ Read the “Exploring key nancial concepts” section to students.
§ Ask students to think of some personality traits, skills, or characteristics that
entrepreneurs likely have and explain why they think those things are related to
being entrepreneurial.
°
Explain that a personality trait is a quality that makes one person or thing
different from another. Shyness and being outgoing are two examples of
personality traits.
°
Examples of personality traits, skills, or characteristics may include
condence (you have to believe you can do it), being hard-working (starting
your own business requires a lot of work), creativity (you have to come up
with original ideas), and perseverance (continuing to do something or try to
do something even though it’s difcult).
§ Write the qualities on the board so students can refer to them later.
§ Ask students what traits, skills, or characteristics they think Foozil and Gibbins
showed and how those qualities helped them with their dog-washing business.
°
Examples appear throughout the book and may include Foozil being creative
at the competition when she designed the logo and the sign (chapter two)
and Gibbins being hard-working (in chapter ve).
§ Be sure students understand key vocabulary:
°
Business: The activity of making, buying, or selling goods or
providing services in exchange for money.
°
Entrepreneur: Someone who organizes, manages, and
assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.
TIP
Visit CFPB’s nancial
education glossary at
consumernance.gov/
nancial-education-glossary/.
Summer 2022
BUILDING BLOCKS TEACHER GUIDE
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Drawing your own business comic strip
Individual work
§ Ask students if they know what a comic strip is.
°
If necessary, explain that a comic strip is a series of cartoon drawings that
tell a story or part of a story. A comic strip can be funny or tell a joke, but it
doesn’t have to. Some students may be familiar with graphic novels that use a
lot of comic strips to tell a serious story.
§ Introduce students to the basic elements of a comic strip by showing them
examples of short comic strips or drawing your own sample on the board.
°
You can also show students the sample comic below.
§ Ask students to discuss the following:
°
How do the frames work together to tell the story?
°
How does the artist tell the reader what the characters are doing?
§ Tell students they’ll create their own comic strip about starting a business.
§ Give students the “Drawing your own business comic strip” worksheet and the
art supplies or computers/tablets with design software.
§ Tell students to use the instructions on the worksheet to plan their comic strip.
°
Explain that their comic strip’s characters or story should reect at least two
personality traits, skills, or characteristics of an entrepreneur.
§ Students can refer to the list on the board or add their own.
°
The comic strip’s characters or story also should include or refer to someone
who is providing money or other resources to help the entrepreneur start the
business.
°
If necessary, use the worksheet to introduce speech bubbles often used in
comic strips.
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Drawing your own business comic strip
Wrap-up
§ Ask volunteers to share whether they’d want to start their own business and the
reasons for their choice.
§ If time allows, consider having students view their classmates’ work by taking an
“art walk”:
°
Have them hang their comic strips in a line in a designated area of the
classroom.
§ Hanging the comic strips along the board, across a blank wall, or even on
their lockers or cubbies may work well.
°
Have students begin at their own comic strip.
°
Tell them to move to the next comic strip on the right.
°
Give students time to review the comic strip and then have them move to the
next one on the right.
°
Repeat until students are back at their own comic strip.
Suggested next steps
Consider searching for other CFPB activities related to earning, including
becoming an entrepreneur, learning about careers, or making money.
Suggestions include “Exploring opportunity costs,” “Exploring entrepreneurship,”
and “Playing a business game.”
Measuring student learning
Students’ comic strips and answers during discussion can give you a sense of
their understanding. Keep in mind that students’ comic strips may vary, as there
may not be only one right approach. The important thing is for students to have
reasonable justication for their approach.
Summer 2022
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Drawing your own business comic strip
Scoring rubric
If you choose to use the scoring rubric below to grade this activity, be sure to
share it with all students so they know what criteria matter most and they can
plan accordingly.
Criteria
Possible
points
Points
earned
Content: Reects at least two personality traits, skills,
or characteristics of an entrepreneur and includes or
refers to someone who is providing money or other
resources to help the entrepreneur start the business
25
This cell is
empty.
Images: Uses visuals that help tell the story 25
This cell is empty.
Characters: Ensures that the characters’ roles are clear 25
This cell is empty.
Comic strip features: Uses comic strip features
(speech bubbles, story sequence, etc.) properly
25
This cell is empty.
Total points 100
This cell is empty.
