Money Math

A few months ago Jay saw a coinstar machine and it kind of turned a light on for him as far as interest in learning about money.  For the past few weeks he's been earning his pennies with a little summer job and dreaming about what he should save them for and all the fun things he could do with them.  

I love it when learning like this happens naturally.  So, naturally I had to make some fun money games for us to play! 

Below you will find ideas for preschool-3rd grade money play/learning.

These coin dice have been so fun for us.  When I looked around the web thinking I would just purchase them I found these but I decided to make them instead.  I like them even better! (how-to below.)

Some games we play:
Just coin dice: roll one die, write the amount of cents, roll the plus/ minus die (or just decide which you will be doing for the game), roll another coin die, write the amount down.  Add or subtract them.  Write it down.

Coin or Dollar dice: Roll one die and then another.  Is the second coin/dollar rolled greater/less than/or equal to the first coin rolled?

Coin die and Dollar die:  roll the coin die, write the amount of cents, roll the plus/ minus die (or just decide which you will be doing for the game), roll the dollar die, write the amount down.  Add them together.  Write it down.  You can do this with subtraction if you start with the dollar die first.  This is great practice for making change.

Dollar and Dollar dice: roll one dollar die, write the amount down, roll the plus/ minus die (or just decide which you will be doing for the game), roll the other dollar die, write the amount down.  Add them together.  Write it down.

It's even more fun if you get your play money out (or real!) and get the right one out when you roll it.  When I got real money out for this game my kids were even more interested in learning about money (and practicing their math!)

Want to make {This Little Project} too?

You need:
 money stickers from Dollar Tree (in their ed. materials)--these stickers are just a picture of each coin and dollar with their amounts written underneath.

Five 1 inch wooden cubes (from craft store or Here)

Modge Podge

(total cost: about $2.00)

You will want 2 coin, 2 dollar, and 1 plus/minus/greater/=/less than cube.

Just cut the coin stickers apart because they come on one big sticker.  I made these tally sheets for Kay to use from the left-over parts of the stickers.  She's not quite ready to do a lot of math with money yet but she's interested in learning coin recognition.  So she rolls the dice and marks a line for each kind.


The $1,5,10,20,50 dollar stickers don't quite fit on the cubes (unless you have bigger wood cubes too) so I just cut enough to make it obvious which dollar bill it was.

After your stickers are cut out, put a layer of modge podge on, lay the sticker on top, let it dry.  Then put a layer of modge podge over the top of the sticker too and let it dry.  Easy and quick!

Now you are ready for lots of fun!

And if you have older money savvy kids you will like this simple online game of making change.  Jay played this a few times over a couple of weeks and still really enjoys it.  Find it Here.








Want one more fun idea?  Make your own store! 
 If you need a cash register (we did) 
this one is inexpensive ($10) and works great.

Learning is always more fun when it's more like playing 
(be it a game or a store!)  Have fun!

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