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Looking for some money activities to use for 2nd grade? I’ve been using these same ones since I first started teaching. They’ve been used with first graders as well and are great for any student needing more help with money identification and counting coins.
Puzzle Money Activities for 2nd Grade
Using puzzles as a money activity is a great way to have students focus on coin or bill recognition. Students need to study the pieces carefully to see how to put them together. In turn, this helps them learn identification of coins and bills.
Puzzles are also super simple to create. For the ones in the picture I simply found a worksheet that I really liked the clipart and blew it up to a large enough size. Then I copied it onto card stock, cut it apart, and laminated it. I keep the puzzle pieces in a sandwich bag and add it to my plastic shoebox of money activities.
Clip Card Money Activities for 2nd Grade
My next easy activity is to use money clip cards. Clip cards just need a set of clothespins (amazing for building fine motor skills) and the cards themselves. The ones pictured focus on identification of coins and the dollar bill. Students are tasked with matching the front and back of coins and then matching the coin to the value.
Once they master identification, they are ready for counting denominations of coins of the same value. For instance, I would have them counting amounts using pennies. Then move on and count by 5s using nickels and 10s using dimes. Last, I have them count quarters.
Dice Money Activities for 2nd Grade
Dice games are always engaging for students and easy for them to play. One of my favorites is the Roll a Quarter game you see pictured below. For this game, I just created a quick board game (sized 2 on a page) that I made using a table in PowerPoint. The cards were printed on cardstock and laminated. Then students just need a pile of pennies, some nickels, a quarter, and a die.
First, students roll the die. Then they collect that number of pennies and place one in each square on the board. Once they have 5 pennies they can then trade the pennies for a nickel and place the nickel in the last slot in that row. The game is over when they can trade all pennies or nickels for a quarter. This game can be differentiated by having students only using pennies to get to twenty-five or trading their pennies for nickels. When students work side by side they can play rapidly to beat their partner to twenty-five cents.
Another simple dice game is to glue some plastic coins to a die. As seen above, I glued mine onto a leftover wooden alphabet block I painted. Students roll the die and find the matching coin. To make it more challenging they can also roll the die and name the coin before finding it or they can name the value and count how much they have at the end of x number of rolls.
My last dice money activity is to have a large pile of coins and a die. Students roll the die and collect that amount of money or find that number of matching coins. If working with partners, the partner can name the coin that the person rolling the die needs to find. For example, they might say, “Find quarters.” Then the partner rolls the die and must find that number of quarters. If they are correct, the coins can go in their pile.
Matching Money Activities for 2nd Grade
The last type of money activities I have to share are matching games. Just like the puzzles, this can be very simple to make. The green set of cards pictured were created from a matching worksheet. Like the puzzles, I simply enlarged and photocopied the worksheets. Then I glued each one to an index card for sturdiness and laminated. Students find the matching coins and value to make a pair.
For the pink pig activity I found a pig clipart online and printed it out a few times to make multiple counting mats. Then I typed up various money amounts and created task cards. Students use piles of coins to count out the value of the card and place it on the pig. I usually pair a student that knows their coins and values with a student that needs more practice together. This way there is someone to check the work and the practice time is useful and purposeful.
Before starting to use some of these money activities in your own 2nd grade class, I would strongly encourage you to assess students on their coin identification. Please visit my previous post about coin identification to see how I do this in my own class.
What are some of your favorite go-to money activities for 2nd grade?
