· 2 min read · Ages 5–10 · K–Grade 4
Printable play money for a classroom store that is obviously pretend
The notes say PLAY MONEY in large letters and carry your class bank's name. Nobody is fooling a cashier, but a six-year-old will count them like they're real.
Our kitchen table was a grocery store for most of a rainy Saturday. Cereal boxes with price tags, a shoebox till, and a six-year-old shopkeeper who would not let you leave without a receipt. The money came off the printer that morning and was in tatters by dinner, which is roughly how it should go.
What the sheet looks like
The play money generator prints five kinds of sheet. Bills come 8 or 10 to a page, with PLAY MONEY printed across each note and your class bank or store name on them. Coins print as labeled rings, 20, 24 or 30 to a page. Then there are 12 price tags, a shopping list with a matching receipt, and a store price board with 8 to 12 items. Currency can be US $, UK £, €, ₹ or Australian $, and the denominations follow the real ones for that currency.
You can pick which values appear on the sheet, choose a picture for the notes (star, rocket, smiley, tree, school or mixed), and set prices to whole amounts, to 25¢, or any cents. Type your own items and prices if the store needs to sell exactly what is in your cupboard.
Why it works
- Counting out $3.75 to pay for something is harder, and more memorable, than circling the right coins on a worksheet.
- The receipt forces the shopkeeper to add. Two items at $2 and $1.50 is a real addition problem that a child will do voluntarily because a customer is waiting.
- Making change is the skill most money worksheets skip. A store with a till makes it unavoidable.
Who it suits
Whole-dollar prices and $1 and $5 notes suit kindergarten and first grade. Add coins and set prices to 25¢ for second grade, and switch to any cents for third and fourth graders, who should be the ones writing the receipt. The notes are deliberately not realistic, so this is not the sheet for identifying real currency; the money worksheet does that with photographs of the actual coins.
Print the coins on card stock if you can. Paper rings fold in a till within an hour.