Games to play with money in the classroom

Here are a few classroom activities and games about money for grades 1 through 4. For this activity, the money skills are literally in the bag! Place an assortment of play money at the math learning center, along with a student-labeled paper lunch bag. On the paper bag, randomly write down five different amounts of money. When a student is at the math center they choose, they circle one of the money amounts and then must match that amount with the play money. They must fill their bag with the matching amount.

Students at the center take turns switching bags and checking that they match. If the amount inside the bag matches with amount circled, the student checking the bag places an X over that amount. This continues until all five amounts on the paper bag have an X on them. Your students will get a kick out of this math skills activity.

Bring in a variety of coupons for students to search through and clip out. Allow students to choose two coupons to write a creative math problem about. They must also include the proper calculations for their math problem.

Divide students into small groups, about four to a group works well. Give each group a bag of coins, paper and a pencil, a bowl, and a piece of masking tape. Students must adhere the tape to the floor and take about five steps back and then place the bowl on the floor. If the coin lands in the bowl, the counter adds the value to their count. Each group continues playing until they reach the desired amount set by the teacher.

Then, a new counter is picked and play continues. Students will love shopping and selling while learning valuable money skills during this garage sale-type activity. Ask students to bring in a few items that they would like to part with. Then, as a class, decide upon how much each item will sell for.

Have students create fun price tags to place on the items. Once the items are labeled, tagged, and in place, set up a play cash register and let students shop.

Give each student a small bag of play money and allow them to take turns shopping for an item. You can designate a student to be at the cash register or you can be. So, I created a free printable that will help you to give your Monopoly play a boost. Each player receives a financial hardship at the beginning of the game. In addition to the traditional rules of Monopoly play remain, whichever financial hardship card you get, you have to follow those added rules as well.

For example, if your financial hardship is having a pile of student loans, then for your first two rounds of the board, you have to pay half of the cost of each property you land on which goes to the bank to pay off your student loans. Divide them into categories by size, shape, or color. Then, assign a money amount for each brick, and include a post-it note or sign that indicates pricing.

Psst: got a cash register with fake money? Check out these best cash register games for kids. As the teacher, you can be the stock market broker for the overall class, or you can choose a stock market broker per group of students. Your students are going to be Construction Foreman, and will work in groups to create a Lego project. If you have a classroom reward system that earns students some sort of printable play money, you can play a classroom auction game at the end of each semester, or even at the end of each school year.

Then this is an excellent way your kids can experience supply and demand in person. I hope I've given you some great games to play with fake money that you can use at home, or in the classroom. Choose one from above, and let the money lessons begin! Article Content. The following two tabs change content below.