I'm not sure why I love it so much, but there is something great about standing at a register and having them count back your money. Maybe I love the math that is happening right before my eye, the customer service aspect of it, or the fact that somebody else is making sure I have the correct change. I'm definitely not taking the time to count it with four little ones under foot.
In a day of debit cards, credit cards, and online banking, it is still important that we teach our children, even as young as second and third grade, how to effectively count and subtract money.
We've been working on this skill with my little guy for awhile now. I've had to be creative in coming up with different ways to practice this essential skill. I've created task cards with toys to purchase, puzzles to put together, and finally we are playing this game.
Subtracting Money Games
This is a very low prep game. All you need to do is:
- Print off game board and word cards that go with it.
- Cut out the game cards
- Grab game markers, a die, and play money that has $10 dollar bills (If your set has $20 bills, even better)
- Sit down with your 2nd - 4th grader for some learning and fun.
How to Play
The goal of the game is to get through the carnival and still have money when you reach the end.
For the first game, the children receive $10 dollars to start the game. The players take turns rolling the die and moving around the board. If a player lands on a carnival game, the players need to pick up a game card and pay that amount of money. Once both players reach the end of the game, they must count the money they have left. Whoever has the most money wins. If a player runs out of money before they reach the end, the game is over with the other player being the winner.
When playing game boards 2 and 3, you can decide whether you would like your players to start with 20 or 30 dollars.
Subtracting Money: The Math behind the Game
When working with my son on subtracting money, I approached it with a focus on place value. We have spent a numerous amount of time subtracting with base ten blocks and playing subtraction games with base ten blocks, so he is very familiar with this concept.
When my boys would reach the first carnival attraction, I would have them break apart the $10.
- First, they would place 10 ones in the one's place.
- If needed they would take out one dollar, and then place 10 dimes in the 10ths place.
- If they still needed to, we would take out one dime and place 10 pennies in the 100ths place.
Now they could easily subtract hand me the amount they needed, to pay for the attraction they landed on.
The reason why we jut used dimes and pennies is to help them visualize what is happening when they do an actually algorithm. You can easily change this and have them grab four quarters for a dollar instead of the 10 dimes.
Later when they are more comfortable with the place value concept we will begin working on counting back. For example, they would hand me the $10 bill, and then play the role of the cashier. Starting at how much money they had to pay, they would then count use change to get to $1 then dollars until they hit the magical $10.
We use money almost every day, and it is vital that we teach our children the ins and out of it. Enjoy your carnival experience and the practice of counting back money. You've Got This
FREE Money Games & Worksheets for Kids
- Hungry Caterpillars Money Game
- Money Mini Book
- How Much do I Need? Grocery Money Task Cards
- 24 Fun Money Games & Activities for Kids
- Robot Money Practice
- Mini Golf Money Practice
- Money Puzzles
- Parts of a Dollar Flip Book
- Practicing Adding Money with Spelling Words
- Money Cut & Paste Book
- Money Worksheets for Kids
- Coin Value Clip Cards
- Color the Coins Money Worksheets
Download Carnival Subtracting Money Game
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Rachel is a homeschool mom to four little ones, ages 2 to 6. She is a former public elementary teacher, and has recently began blogging at her page You’ve Got This. You can also find her on Facebook and Pinterest.
