Looking for a free printable money template for your classroom or homeschool?
Whether you’re a classroom teacher or homeschooling your kids, teaching math concepts like the value of money is not easy. This is because it takes years for children to develop an ability to understand abstract ideas.
Using tangible objects such as printable money is a great way to help students develop an understanding of real money. And if your child loses a pretend printable dollar bill, you haven’t lost anything.
That’s why I’ve created a free printable classroom money template for you and your kids. Additionally, here are ideas to optimize your math lessons using printable bank notes.
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FREE Printable Play Money Template
Ok. Let’s quickly look at the printable classroom money template so you know what you’re working with. Download the Free Printable Play Money Template PDF file containing the following:
- Printable coins (actual size)
- Pennies
- Nickels
- Dimes
- Quarters
- Fake cash in dollar note increments of:
- $1 through $100
Please note that this printable money template is based on US bills.
Also, while they won’t pass as genuine money, they resemble real banknotes in a few ways. Specifically, each bill includes landmarks unique to the different currencies. For example, the White House on the 20-dollar bill.
How to Use Printable Money
There are many ways to use this printable fake money template for playful fun and educational purposes.
Here are a few ideas to help you incorporate these printable banknotes and coins into your money lesson plans.
Money Terms and Symbols
Before jumping into teaching the concept of money, it’s important to review some of the basic vocabulary and symbols.
For example, make sure they can identify:
- Dollar sign
- Cent sign
I’m a big fan of using reference charts with students for as long as they need them. Simply write out the money terms and symbols and review them with your child slowly over time.
5 Play Money Math Activities
The following contains five ways to use printable money to develop a child’s math skills.
These lesson ideas can be used as classroom activities or within your homeschool with one or two children.
Further, these educational activities support the development of executive functioning skills.
1. Use Skip Counting Songs
Friend, whoever told us that rote memory is bad is WRONG! Rote memory is a gift from God.
Kids are designed to memorize so easily for a reason and many neurodivergent learners (ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia) have strong long-term memories. Use this to their academic advantage.
Play skip counting songs while driving in the car and sing them a couple of times a day. Doing so lays a foundation for counting by 5s (nickels), and tens (dimes).
Math Memorization Through Song
Memorizing through song will help with a number of math concepts including:
- Counting coins
- Learning to tell time
- Multiplication facts
- and more
We sing skip-counting songs using Cross Seven Musical Memory Work. Further, Times Tales has been helpful in memorizing those multiplication facts. And these space skip counting puzzles are also a great learning tool.
2. A Simple Coin Sort
Sorting is a wonderful activity that creates order and uses multi-sensory learning to reinforce value as it relates to coins. Dump out a piggy bank of coins and have your child sort them into categories.
3. Create a Pretend Store
A fun way to use pretend play money in the younger years is to create a fake store. Stock your store with food items from the kitchen or with toys.
In our homeschool, my son enjoys creating simple stores using a collection of his favorite miniature toys. We then had a great time using simple Post-it notes to price objects in different denominations.
For example, in the beginning, each object was priced in increments of a penny.
- A small bottle of ketchup: 1¢
- Red matchbox car: 5¢
- Large pink eraser: 9¢
- PJ Masks figurine: 7¢
- Thomas the Train: 11¢
Once he understood one-to-one correspondence between a penny and the term 1¢, we’d gradually add nickels, or 5¢.
- A small bottle of ketchup: 5¢
- Red matchbox car: 15¢
- Large pink eraser: 20¢
- PJ Masks figurine: 23¢
- Thomas the Train: 15¢
Simple Steps
However, if like me, you homeschool your child, it’s very easy to make this shopping experience easy to execute.
- In our home, my son runs to his room.
- He collects his toys.
- Brings them to the kitchen table.
- Sticks the price tags on each object.
- I throw all the Post-its in a Gallon bag for reuse.
- Then, we sit across from one another.
- Take turns choosing objects to purchase.
Be sure to have a small whiteboard, dry-erase marker, and eraser on hand to work through any addition or subtraction problems that come up.
Of course, if you’re in a classroom, set up a classroom store.
4. Play Board Games
Play a board game. Everyone remembers playing Monopoly, right? There’s something about Monopoly Money that makes the difference in understanding the value of the real thing.
Use any educational board game and incorporate printable dollar bills and coins while working on simple math problems between each turn.
What’s One-to-One Correspondence?
One-to-one correspondence is an important skill that’s foundational to basic mathematics. Specifically, one-to-one correspondence tells us that one object represents a value of one number unit.
This is a math concept that can be developed at an early age through fun activities using pretend cash and coins.
For example, use these as preschool money printables and focus on one-to-one correspondence. In this case, only print cents and one-dollar bills.
5. Chore Chart
While we often think of learning only as it relates to a formal lesson plan. However, learning is related to habits and behaviors.
When used appropriately, earning money can be used as a healthy form of behavior modification. Chore charts for kids can be a great tool.
For example, if your child needs extra motivation (think dopamine for the ADHD brain), to develop the habit of making their bed daily, use cash.
- Print several copies of the dollar bill template.
- Attach a value to specific chores or habits.
At the end of the day or week, have your child cash in their “play money” for a reward of their choice.
Unfortunately, behavior modification strategies often cause harm to neurodivergent children who don’t fit in the box. Adults often label undesirable behavior based on unhealthy expectations.
In the end, the important thing is for rewards to be used as tools to help kids self-regulate and self-motivate. These tools should never be used to shame children.
Healthy Token Economy
If you’ve been with me long enough, you know I’m not a fan of behavior modification.
Unfortunately, the typical classroom rewards system defines good behavior in a way that hurts neurodivergent children.
However, when used in an affirming way, printable cash can be helpful to support the development of healthy habits.
Inspire Self-Motivated Habit Tracking
Perhaps you want your child to develop the habit of making their bed. Another idea is to focus on developing a more positive attitude.
- Collaborate with your child and determine a goal they’d like to work on.
- Print out a copy of this free habit tracker.
- Place a clear mason jar next to it.
- Place it in your child’s room.
- Have your child add a play dollar into their jar for every day they meet their goal.
Sometimes, the visual cue alone can help kids (and adults) develop a responsible attitude toward developing helpful habits.
Related Post:
Using Printable Money Through the Years
The benefit of a math manipulative like these printable money templates is they can be used for multiple grade levels.
- Practice subtraction skills by learning to make small change using coins and dollar bills.
- Work on multiplication facts
- Using nickels and dimes
- Addition
- Place pennies in these printable ten frames to develop base ten skills
In the end, use these printable dollars and coins for additional practice in various math operations.
Printing Instructions
This set contains printable play money designs that should be printed on both the front and back sides.
Additionally, I highly recommend printing on cardstock and not a regular piece of paper. Detailed instructions will accompany your download.
Recap: Free Printable Classroom Money Template
Again, there are several educational uses for play paper money.
I’ve created this free printable play money template for personal use as a resource for your home or classroom. Sign up to download the free printable dollars and cents in PDF format.
About the Author:
Lindsay is a trauma-informed educator with a Master’s Degree in Teaching. Her mission is to support moms to equip neurodivergent kids (ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Anxiety) to thrive as exactly who they’ve been created to be. Wait until you hear the story that led to it all…
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