There are two things I know for sure…
- Kids love activities made from things they know and love. That’s why this money math activity using chips is fun and functional in nearly every elementary or secondary special education classroom.
- Teacher love FREE stuff!
To set up fun and functional centers for students in Special Education classes or Autism Units, I love basic and versatile activities like this one!
Easy Ways to Differentiate
You can use this free money math activity with bills or coins (or both) to work on whole dollar amounts at a center or as you collect data for money skills.
As a go-to activity, I love to have students add chips together and then count out the money. It’s a perfect basic addition activity.
This activity rocks when it comes to budgeting skills! I have students pick out two or three chips. Students can determine the change from a 5, 10, or 20 dollar bill.
Setting up this activity is easy!
Setup Tips and Tricks
PRINT: Start by printing the activity pages. You can print them on cardstock paper if you want some heft to it. I suggestion printing them in color. Black and white works too. I do have a couple sets in black & white… The chips are so recognizable, students don’t have any problems with identifying them.
PREP: If you think this activity will be in heavy rotation, I suggest laminating them (try this one for under $20). Laminating helps them last a little longer.
I also punch a hole in the corner so that I can store them on a binder ring– It helps to keep them together and makes them easy to store using a command hook. Putting a few command hooks on the wall with several math activities means I don’t have to dig around for them when I need them.
If you want to see how I put this all together, watch this video:
USE: As I mentioned, I think this activity is super easy to differentiate with the suggestions above. Set those expectations with your students
Once you have those in place, set this activity up for early finishers in a ziplock or folder with loose leaf paper to record answers
In centers, put this in a basket with coin and bill manipulatives. Have students work through the task cards. Remember, you can control the skill by eliminating or limiting certain coins.
For getting data with the teacher, I like to store this on the command hooks with binder rings. I think it is easy to flip through them and keep them all together. Then I take data on the student’s data sheet.
Get Yours NOW!
If you are chomping at the bit to get this awesome and free chips math center activity for money math, we’ve got you! Just enter your info below and we’ll email it straight to you!
I LOVE to see Noodle Nook activities in classrooms. Once you get this activity set up, please pop over to Instagram, post a picture and tag #thenoodlenook so I can see you in action.
If you are looking for more money math activities to use in your classroom, visit our Noodle Nook store or see us on Teachers Pay Teachers.