The New $5
Economic Education Advisor Andrew Hill, Ph.D., highlights the security and design features that make the redesigned note safer, smarter, and more secure.
Listen to the podcast and follow along on the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's website. (MP3 file, 9.1 MB, 4:58)
Teachers can download lesson plans to assist them in teaching about the new $5 bill. The following lessons are available courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
- Abraham Lincoln and the Five Dollar Note (PDF, 971 KB, 28 pages)
Grades 5-8. In this lesson, students participate in a puzzle activity to identify leadership characteristics that Abraham Lincoln possessed. They review the changes in the redesigned $5 note and consider how Lincoln’s leadership characteristics contribute to the fact that he is pictured on the $5 note. Students look at a timeline of Lincoln’s life and identify significant events in his road to the White House. They play a game to review content learned in the lesson.
- Currency and the Fed (PDF, 1.2 MB, 22 pages)
Grades 8-12. In this lesson, students consider who is pictured on the different denominations of U.S. currency and why. They participate in an activity to identify functions of basic, everyday items and then identify and explain the functions of another basic, everyday item—money. Students learn some basic facts about money as well as some basics about the Federal Reserve System. In addition, they describe the Federal Reserve’s role in the distribution of money by identifying features of the $5 note.