free printable math worksheets for special education students

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Education Resources for Special Needs Students

Educate Learners offers printable worksheets, digital worksheets, flashcards, books and apps that are designed for learners of varying ability levels. Our resources are aligned with each states adapted standards of learning curriculum including the dynamic learning map (DLM). 

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Each resources is adapted diligently with special learners in mind.  Our goal is to increase special needs learners ability to exhibit their academic skills.

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Individual plan 1 student, access to all resources and a teacher account to keep documents and more., multi-student plan 10 students, access to all resources and a teacher account to keep documents and more. additionally, keep track of student progress for up to 10 students., multi-student plan 20 students, access to all resources and a teacher account to keep documents and more. additionally, keep track of student progress for up to 20 students..

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We offer standard-aligned worksheets for students in grades K-3, as well as, flashcards and social stories.  Our resources are simple, adapted and great to use for special needs students.

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Differentiated Fall Math Worksheets for Elementary Special Education

As a former special education teacher, I always had a hard time finding worksheets that fit my students needs and that I could use with more than one student in my classroom. Often times, our students have very different goals, so purchasing a set of worksheets on JUST counting was great for one student, but didn’t help me with the other seven. This is exactly why I created the monthly math packs a few years ago! When I created this set of  fall themed math worksheets , I wanted to be sure to add in a variety of elementary math skills and differentiate some of the skills so that writers & non-writers could complete the worksheets. These are great for homework, one on one work, adapted work to take into inclusion, or even morning work. But my favorite part? There is NO prep and NO color ink necessary! As special educators, we have enough prep to do, so I wanted to make this easy to print and use!

These are just a few peeks inside the pack of worksheets! When purchased, you receive the following skills:

• Big/Small Cut & Paste Sorts
• Short/Tall Cut & Paste Sorts
• Shape Cut & Paste Sorts
• Color the Shape
• Count the Objects
• Fill in the Missing Numbers
• AB/ABB Patterns
• More/Less Than
• Addition/Subtraction with Pictures
• Write the Time (:00 & :30)
• Measure to the Nearest Inch

Like what you see and want to save it for later? Don’t forget to pin it with the image below! Or you can grab the  Fall Math Worksheets  right now!

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Special Needs for SPECIAL KIDS

Teaching high school math in a special education classroom.

• August 26, 2019
• Tips for High School

Teaching high school math can be a challenge in any situation, but it can be especially challenging in special education. Most students are lacking pre-requisite skills. However, I know teachers are being expected to teach higher level math concepts to their high school students, even those with significant needs and challenges.

Topics like functions, linear equations, geometry, coordinate graphing, and even advanced algebra are all urgent requests I have gotten over the last few months. The sad reality is that these teachers are rarely given anything more than a list of standards to follow. Why? There is just very little material out there to support students with significant disabilities in the middle and high school range. So what are you to do if you are tasked with teaching high school math in a special education setting?

In this post, I want to give you some concrete, actionable tips to use and remember before jumping into these more advanced math topics. More importantly, I want you to see it is possible with the right tools and support, even your most affected students can work through these standards and gain some knowledge and understanding that may benefit them in the future. And, of course, I will have some free downloads for you to try if you still are not convinced.

1. Pre-requisite skills for high school math

Ok, let’s face it, most of the topics I mentioned above have a laundry list of pre-requisite math skills a student would need to have in order to be successful. In addition, 99% of the students coming into a high school math classroom just do not have them. It is a tough conundrum to solve for sure. But being able to shift our belief and definition about what those pre-requisite skills really are can be a game-changer.

You will never, ever be able to go back and teach all the math skills necessary to solve a linear function equation. But that does not mean you cannot still teach your students how to complete a simple function table. And, if you can get them to do that, they are right on the precipice of solving a linear equation.

When teaching high school math, meet your students WHERE THEY ARE . Rather than trying to go back and teach all the skills they never were exposed to or never learned, figure out how to use the skills they do have to teach them this material. Sounds impossible? Let’s take functions as an example.

So here is the standard: F.IF.1c Identify the input or output of a function given in table form. (see the complete standards for this high school math unit ) A standard function table may look like this:

But what if you could make it look like this:

And not only that, what if you used actual objects and a real-life function machine when teaching this high school math standard? (I made this one while in the classroom, and used it for so many things. The kids loved it. CLICK HERE ) With enough practice and creativity, many of your students will start to understand the input/output concept.

Students still struggling? Try moving away from quantities and leveraging those skills your students do have. Like this table:

As special ed teachers we are so good at thinking outside of the box!! Even with these more advanced standards we just need to get even more creative when teaching high school math. Be sure to download my free set of function worksheets at the end of this post .

2. Vocabulary in high school math

As we introduce these higher level concepts, I find it so helpful to take a step back and really focus on vocabulary. As much as possible, I would encourage you to use the REAL words. Do not make up cute replacements that you think will be easier for students to remember. Instead, use simple pictures to pair with these curriculum based words.

I know so many students who have learned very sophisticated words for items that are highly desirable to them. Since most, if not all, of this content will be new let’s just start off with the correct vocabulary .

Play games, practice daily, and be consistent with your use of words and symbols to deepen their understanding of this new and challenging material.

3. Real-world examples when teaching high school math

This one is probably fairly obvious to many of you. When you start on a new topic, try to relate it to items and processes your students are already familiar with.

Again, we may need to think outside of the box but it makes such a difference. Google searches were my best friend when trying to come up with ideas for some of these more advanced units. There is so much out there, it just takes some time to hunt it down.

4. Repetition and re-teaching

So, if you have followed my blog for any time or purchased any of my resources, you know how I feel about repetition. It is absolutely crucial and should never be taken for granted. When I create these high school math units, I not only make tons of worksheets (probably way more than is necessary) but I also strongly encourage teachers to use them more than once.

You can read more about the benefits and power of repetition by visiting my blog post and learn how to do it without being boring.

This is likely a brand new skill, and it will take many, many, many trials to master. Now, I do like to add some variation to the mix. Change up the objects, the quantities, the colors, even just changing the font all adds to the variety and increases the likelihood of generalization. So, repetition with variety is HUGE!!

How much time to spend on re-teaching? That is a question that can be hard to answer. If your students just do really horrible on the assessment, then I would definitely go back and re-teach for at least a week. But, here is the key : if you give the assessment BEFORE starting the topic as a pre-assessment, then you have a much better idea if there was any growth. I would often have students who only got 3 out of 10 correct on the assessment. Sounds awful right? But, they had only 1 correct on the pre-assessment. Guess what?! That is 200% growth . Without that pre-assessment piece I might feel really discouraged and spend way too much time re-teaching. How much growth is enough? Only you can decide that.

5. Using pictures when teaching high school math

So as you saw in the function table example, you can insert pictures in the place of numbers and letters as much as possible. A program I used, Hands on Equations, did a great job of this. (You can see a YouTube video about that HERE .)

Compare these two worksheets:

You may have some students than can complete this function table with the numbers. But, more likely, you have students who are not even able to read much above a 1st – 2nd grade level. Could they do the worksheet with pictures? Same exact problem, just less pre-requisite knowledge needed. I know they would need support of course, but you are more likely to make some connections and gain some independence with the second worksheet.

Hopefully, by now I have inspired you to try it. At the very least, I hope I have eased that sense of panic you may have had as your administrator handed you these “new” standards that had to be addressed. It is absolutely possible!! And, if you still feel like you have no way to put all that together, I have you covered!! I have lots of advanced math units in my store ready to download, print, and go. Use your energy on the teaching rather than the creating. Click HERE to see all the units I have specifically for middle and high school.

Now, about that free download. Just click the button below to grab my set of function table worksheet. Then, watch your email for some more function freebies!!

Take a look a this video that covers my Functions and Linear Equations Unit. Get it now, click HERE .

Hi, I really like the way you show your students how to learn math even though they are years behind. Do you have any material for 8th grade math resource teachers?

Thanks for the question Jeremey. I emailed you a pacing guide that lists all 25 units I have for middle and high school math. I am currently building out more Algebra I and II units!!

Hi Christa! Coincidently, I too teach 8th grade math and have been searching for some additional resources and alternate methods of teaching students who are behind. Is there any chance you may be able to email me that pacing guide with those units as well? I’d greatly appreciate it!

Thanks for reaching out Ben. I emailed you the pacing guide for middle and high school math. You can also see it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14nRvdKenuNjJZG9uS9MCflMlY1jhpQrZ/view?usp=sharing These units are geared toward students who take an alternate assessment.

I am a new algebra 1 special education teacher who are looking for resources to teach my students at their level. It has been hard, because my school does not supply me with worksheets or books. I get through same materials the general education teachers receives. I am seeking ways to help my students before they fall further behind.

Hi Javonna. I sent you an email, but I would check out my algebra bundle here: https://specialneedsforspecialkids.org/product/algebra-bundle-for-special-education-print-and-digital/ . I have quite a few middle and high school math resources that are supported with a lot of pictures and step by step scaffolding worksheets that guide students through the process of solving various types of equations. Thanks for reaching out. I hope that bundle has some helpful material for you.

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I'M CHRISTA JOY MY MISSION IS TO GIVE PARENTS AND TEACHERS THE TOOLS THEY NEED IN ORDER TO FEEL EFFECTIVE AND CONFIDENT TEACHING EVEN THE MOST CHALLENGING OF STUDENTS.

Special Education Math Curriculum

From Me To You

Welcome! Looking for simple math curriculum for special education students? You're in the right place.  I've created over 40 step-by-step lesson workbooks for my students, making them as practical and user-friendly as possible.  Each lesson breaks skills into steps that are small enough for even my lowest student to be successful and confident. I am happy for the opportunity to share my work with you. I sincerely hope these resources will benefit you and your students.  

---Angela Dansie

Download Your Free Placement Test

Are you the parent or teacher of a child who struggles with math?  This assessment can identify gaps in basic math skills and give you a starting point.

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Samples are included in each preview.

Explore the Math Lesson Workbooks

Simple step-by-step lessons on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, number sense, and more. 

Learn More About The Resources

Created specifically to help students with learning disabilities, attention difficulties, and other special needs, and to lighten the load of teachers and parents. 

Read About The Research

Instruction is research-based, utilizing best practices for special education and interventions.

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Teachers and parents have seen significant student progress. Students are looking forward to math time. Teachers are spared hundreds of hours of planning and preparation time. 

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Grades 2 - 3 Special Education Math

2nd Grade and 3rd Grade math worksheets, math games, and math activities provide step by step math help for students with learning disabilities.

 Improve basic math skills with visual math aids, including:

• images of base-10 blocks, counters, and number lines
• graph paper to align numbers
• color-coded hints and clear examples
• step-by-step math help
• math games and activities with math manipulatives

How to Use Our Math Worksheets

Use Luminous Learning printable math worksheets when teaching basic math facts. They’re useful for differentiated instruction , independent practice during your math lessons, and math station  activities. Assign them as math homework  or math do-now worksheets.  

How to Use Our Math Games and Activities

Use Luminous Learning math games and activities to provide math practice and make math learning fun! They’re useful for differentiated instruction   during math centers  and provide extra practice to reinforce basic math skills.

Develop Math Fact Fluency and Conceptual Understanding

Our math printables are designed to help your students achieve math success and become confident students! Learn more about how we designed Luminous Learning math resources with visual math aids to support special education students.

Shop our 2 nd Grade and 3 rd Grade math worksheets, math games, and math activities:

Special Education and Inclusive Learning

Free Printable SEN Teaching Resources

Free printable send teaching resources and activities..

All our free printable SEN teaching resources are free to use and share. Please also visit our Free Sensory Story page . They have been designed for use in my classes. These have been designed for Primary and Secondary SLD and SEN pupils.

Please feel free to download and use these free printable special education teaching resources (usually in powerpoint or PDF downloads) that I have made for my students over the last few years. These are designed to be used as part of a toolkit of thematic downloadable resources,  printed and laminated ( with Velcro ) to use as folder tasks for TEACCH systems for Autistic learners. They can also be used as worksheets for literacy, numeracy,  ASDAN evidence etc. Many use widget software symbols to support reluctant or pre-readers.

All these Special Education Teaching Resources are free to Download. Please Share on Facebook or Pinterest If you use them.

Theme/Topic Free SEN Teaching Resources

Asdan resource books.

This page has Free Transition Challenge and New Horizons evidence workbooks that you can use to evidence the work your learners have competed in their ASDAN modules.

Space and Planets Special Education Teaching Resources

All Space and planet lesson free teaching resources now have their own post with teaching ideas suitable for learners with a range of additional needs.

Transport Topic Free SEN Teaching Resources

All the free SEN teacher resources printable transport themed teaching resources and learning activities now have their own posts Transport Topic Resources 1 & Transport Topic Resources 2

Life Skills Worksheets

These are an ongoing project so will be added to soon. This is the first batch. Kitchen labelling etc.

Halloween Online Safety Social Story

A little social story for those who may come across images that disturb them when searching Halloween. Created with Widgit online.

D-Day Resources

Here are some quick SEN worksheets to support teaching about D-Day – 6th June 1944! Including Dominoes, vocabulary, numeracy. 6 worksheets total. You may also like our VE day sensory story. and we have a whole page on Remembrance day teaching resources

People Who Help Us SEN Topic Resources

People who help us (Police, Fire Brigade, Nurses etc)  have their own page of free printable resources.

Sign up for Quidco a great cashback site here . If you are planning on buying something on Amazon this link will give us a little bit of revenue (no cost to you)

SEN Literacy Teaching Resources

These preposition worksheets are based on colourful semantics. Language and Communication Commenting Board. This is a great simple literacy activity where the learners comment on the picture.

Download the Symbol supported sentence construction printable worksheets , students can circle the correct words, you could laminate and dry-wipe these or classic cutting and sticking. These are hopefully useful in planning a literacy lesson. They can easily be made interactive through adding pictures of the children.

Emoji Emotions Resources For SEN

Download the Emoji Emotions 3 worksheet bundle here.  I used this as an activity to back up emotions work. I printed a lot of the emojis and hid them in a sensory tray. Once the student found one they could tick it off. Included in the bundle is a sheet of printable dominoes. Emotional education resources are so tricky to generalise but i hope these resources facilitate the teaching of emotions to some extent.

New Friends Worksheet

You can stick images of the child and their new friends and classmates onto this PHSE teaching sheet. When I did this one child expressed concern about people already being friends.

Downloads New_Friends_Worksheet

Roald Dahl’s Matilda Worksheets

Two labelling worksheets for Miss Trunchbull and Miss Honey.

Download the Zip file with editable Matilda Printable worksheets Here.

Snowy Day Printable Visual Checklist.

Just quickly made this snowy day printable teaching resource as it’s snowing, Tick off the snowy day images as you find them! Could use on a walk or as a winter scavenger hunt . Great for SEN or EYFS pupils

Local or National Newspaper SEN Worksheet.

You can use this to find specific text and images as you look through a paper (local or national). I.e Find a word beginning with “th” find an image of a person etc.

Local paper English text and images

Name the Sea Creature

Super Simple Under the sea teaching worksheet students just tick the correct name of the sea animal.

  Name the sea creature Download here.

Minibeast SEN Handwriting Practice

I’ve just started a minibeast topic and love outdoor learning . To start with download this  Minibeast handwriting practice sheet.

New Year Resources 2018!

Probably only useful this week but here is a worksheet and a questions game to play with your class.

Download – New year holiday diary resources here.

Religion & Beliefs SEN Printable Resources. 

Some of these were worksheets designed around the education aspect of the PREVENT duty. Just general worksheets around the key religions in the UK. At this time I haven’t made up in-depth explanations of each religion. I hope you find these useful in promoting education of beliefs and religions.

Prevent_Beliefs worksheet

Prevent_Beliefs_Discussion_task

Prevent_Beliefs_Explanation

Prevent_Beliefs_Missing_Letter worksheet

Prevent_Beliefs_Word_Letter_Building

Religious_Beliefs_wordmat This Symbol Support Wordmat is a simple SEN resource.

Rules of religions

Firefighting Resources.

Here is an awesome video bingo (well matching as everyone would win but feel free to delete some images to make a bingo)  using a fire engine video from Kent Fire and rescue(Click here for youtube link ). I love doing these and the students find them really engaging. The black and white page is if you have a student that prefers to match or won’t look at the screen (Click HERE for more). There is also a screenshot from the video used to make a build your own fire engine worksheet or cut and laminate as a jigsaw.

Click here to download the worksheet and bingo boards

Computing/ICT Resources.

Student voice is essential in developing an online safety (e-safety) policy for SEND. The threats and specific challenges facing autistic children online is not an area that is well enough researched or understood . This communication board may help you find out how the students use the internet.

Online Safety Communication Board

Simple online safety matching worksheet.

Communicating with and without technology worksheet.

David Walliams The First Hippo on The Moon.

Symbol-based simple worksheets (P4-7 )if you are reading the book “ The First Hippo on the moon ” in class. No Copyright infringement intended. Find all in this powerpoint – first_hippo-on-moon_worksheets .

Phonics Resources/SPAG Resources

These support the read write inc phonics scheme. I used these to try and embed phonics within group reading. We have a number of students who like dinosaurs and the Gruffalo is a great book with an excellent website . No copyright infringement intended!

We also have a post written by an experienced Early Years (EYFS) lead on making your Phonics lessons inclusive .

Phonics Gruffalo worksheet letter sounds

Phonics dinosaur worksheet Letter Sounds

My most popular resource on TES resources. Here are some simple overwriting sheets to support Read Write Inc click on the speed sounds  set you need. These are a faded font for easy overwriting.

ckubf  ,  elhshr,   inpgo,   jwvth,   masdt,   zchqx .

Numeracy Resources.

One of the most popular free resources on TES is this overwriting number task sheet. Using a dotted font. You can laminate and reuse this as a daily task that facilitates numeracy skills and fine motor skills.

Number formation practi ce – 1-10 Dotted

ASDAN Transition Challenge Worksheets.

There are many more ASDAN Resources on the ASDAN page .

Click Here to Download Breakfast ASDAN  worksheet – Students can create an English or continental breakfast, what makes this lesson even more effctive is if you can use this as a follow up to a practical teaching session to enable the learner to put the lesson in context.

ASDAN Taking the Lead Birthday List  – A sheet your students can add friends birthdays onto.

  ASDAN Change Reciept Worksheet Transition Challenge

Science SEN Teaching Resources.

Just a crisp taste test sheet. Put three crisp flavours out labelled ABC and guess the flavour.

Download the worksheet here.

We have just published a new post on STEM Provocations linked to the story – The Three Little pigs

PHSE Wellbeing/Online Safety Lesson Resources

This is a stranger danger/Safer stranger worksheet pack. Widgit symbol supported. Also contains a page for new teachers or carers. They should wear an ID badge etc. Includes the Makaton sign for a stranger and other vocabulary thats important to know.

character building worksheet

I based these on the resources from The Jubilee Centre

Christmas Dinner

This is a great teacher resource, here is a worksheet I have used a few times for ASDAN transition challenge. It involves making up a plate of what you would like for your Christmas dinner. Widgit symbols and images.

Christmas dinner Free Printable Worksheet

Example IEP

This is an example of a simple IEP (Individual Education Plan) for educators to use with students with additional needs. Does not include b ehaviour breakdown . For use with pupils with autism or learning difficulty. A excellent SEN resource for SENCOs .

EU Referendum Bingo – Brexit Bingo!

Click the image below or here to download a widgit symbolled 10 card BREXIT bingo about this years referendum. Leave or Remain? I’ve tried to be balanced. EU Referendum Bingo for students to reflect on the BREXIT shambles.

I hope these free SEN teaching resources have helped you prepare some teaching material and create a lesson plan no matter what curriculum model you follow. Each pedagogical model or curriculum designed for SEND learners is unique and often requires teaching resources to be adapted for each school, classroom or learner to engage with. The core of teaching and learning is, however, the passion of the teacher. I hope this page of resources for teachers helps you create an inclusive classroom with some engaging lesson plans, for more information about teaching strategies see this post. As well as the resources the learning environment is essential here are 5 ways to ensure every learner is able to engage.

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differentiate & age appropriate resources for teens & adults in special education.

Functional Money Skills in the Special Education Classroom

January 12, 2021 by Fiona

Money skills are an important aspect to independent living.  Not only do students have to be able to identify types of money and their values, or how to budget, but also all of the hand and social skills that come with handling money.  It’s one thing to do worksheets that have word problems involving money,  but being able to transfer those skills in the community is a whole other skill to master.  Here are some ideas to practice these functional skills in the classroom to prepare your students for the community and beyond!

Digital Activities, File Folders, Task Cards > Worksheets

I am not a huge fan of worksheets, just because a lot of times worksheets are not very motivating for my students (and they kill trees), but I do use them from time to time. It depends on the student, but I’m a huge fan of digital activities and task cards, because these are visually engaging. And usually they provide a limited number of answer fields (multiple-choice), which most of my students need.  They are accessible to students that are not able to write. Digital activities are a great way to allow students to either circle the answer, or they can touch/point to it.

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Digital activities are also accessible to those who need audio. So for digital activities, you might have the question read to them, or what the answer choices are, if it’s reading comprehension, you need the whole thing read to them. The other thing that I like is that students can concentrate on one question at a time. So when you’re using a task card, it’s like having one question and one multiple-choice set of answers right there in front of you. Sometimes worksheets can be overwhelming because you have, five, six, 20 different questions on one sheet. So I like that we’re able to just focus on one question at a time.

Digital activities and task cards and file folders make for great independent work centers or small group lessons, you’re able to do that with worksheets also, but if you haven’t already hopped onto the digital activities, these are great for distance learning or back in the classroom. Check out this blog post on how to use digital activities in the classroom .

Need adapted resources for teaching money skills? Check these out:

Money & Math Digital Activities (multiple choice)

Digital Task Boxes (Drag & Drop)

File Folders

Social Narratives (Social Stories)

Why do I use these? They’re visual, and they teach direct social skills instruction that is beneficial to students with special needs or autism. A lot of the times I might do a social story that has to do with money, names and values, you know, the basics about money. And then next we can move on to talking about banking terms, what the banking terms mean, and then how we’re going to apply those in the community or what that means as far as when you’re working in earning money, like how that all correlates.

So putting it into a social story or a social narrative is a helpful way to help your students understand how and why. Some other ideas that you can use are steps to making a transaction. This is a perfect social narrative that you can write, um, how to budget, or how to use a debit card. Anything that needs requires a who, what, where, when, why, or step-by-step social stories are perfect for that.

Use Real Cash (Or fake cash that looks real)

Use actual cash when possible, I think the more realistic it is, the better, it’s easier for the students to transfer that knowledge. If you don’t feel comfortable using real cash with some activities, you can use fake cash. And I’ve found some pretty realistic looking cash on Amazon (affiliate link) CLICK HERE . Try and steer away from monopoly money or the “fake cash” that does not look anything like the real thing because it can be confusing for the student and harder for them to transfer that knowledge to the real thing.

An activity that I like to do, especially if still doing virtual or hybrid learning is you can ask the students to bring a wallet or different amounts of bills and coins with them to the live session.  Or if you’re doing this in class, you would just have all of that readily available for them.  Some simple ideas for activities using real cash:

• Money match
• Name identification
• Value identification
• Pay for an item
• Next Dollar Up
• Which is more/less

How to implement: So you’ll hold up the $5 bill for instance, then all of the students have a $1 bill, a $5 bill, maybe some quarters, you know, all the different coins or one of each thing. Then they have to find which one matches to the one that you’re holding up, and you can go through each one. Another thing you can do is counting all the different values. So they have to hand you either a $5 bill or hand you five, $1 bills, just a bunch of different variations you can work on with that. You can work on name identification, so maybe you’ll hold up the $5 bill or a quarter.

On-Campus/Classroom Jobs

I like to have my students fill out timesheets when they complete a classroom or an on-campus job. That way they are learning that their work is equating to a reward or a paycheck, much like they would experience once they are in the adult world or in their career world. So students can earn money or they can earn points towards, the minutes or hours that they worked. It depends on what type of reward system you want to set up in your classroom. Using actual money can get kind of expensive, but I like lower amounts like 25 cents or something along those lines, that’ll go towards like a snack bar or like a little reward store that they can redeem those things.

This would also provide another opportunity for students to learn how to read analog and digital clocks for when they are, clocking in or clocking out and writing that time down on their timesheet. It also gives them the opportunity to learn to count and add up their hours. So that way they can see, Hey, I worked one hour on Monday, I worked one hour on Wednesday, and I worked one hour on Friday, so I worked a total of three hours this week and that’s going to get me this reward. Having them fill out timesheets is a great way for basic calculations of paychecks.   Check out this simplified timesheet system for your classroom.

Token Economy

Token economy is also a great way to work on “earning” money. So I don’t use too much token economy in the adult transition world just because we usually try and fade out of a token economy, but it’s okay if you’re still using it. And if we are using it, I try and make it functional.  I try and incorporate money into it instead of earning stars or whatever it might be, but you know your students, so you have to choose something that’s going to work for them, especially when it comes to compliance. But if you can, try and incorporate money.  You can simply Velcro fake coins, or you can actually do real coins, which would be even better. That way the student can see it’s a real nickel or a real dime or whatever you choose to use.

Students can work for a prize box or reward store.  You can create a visual menu as a reminder to students of what they are working for.  This menu can consist of simple pricing on it (higher prices for more value rewards). For example, they can earn a coloring page that you set at a dollar’s worth of coins depending on how fast your student needs to be reinforced throughout the day. Another thing I like to do is on Fridays, we go off campus and we go to the dollar tree so they can work towards earning something at the dollar tree that they can purchase. And then from there, we’re using more money skills to make that purchase. So it’s a win, win all around.

Classroom Grocery Store

There’s so many different activities that you can get out of having a classroom grocery store. So what I’ve done is I’ll save up old cans and old boxes. And if you need help, you can ask your staff, or you can ask other teachers or even the parents of your students to send in old packages, after they’re done using them, as long as they’re not like dirty. So be careful about some of the jars. You want to make sure you clean them out pretty well. You can use like a small bookshelf or whatever you have space for that has shelves. Put price tags on each item and make sure to give them different prices so you can do comparison shopping skills also.  You can find these premade price stickers CLICK HERE on Amazon (affiliate link).

They’re great because they have all of the basics of the money that we’re using. So nothing too complicated, it’s all just $1, 25 cents, 75 cents, 50 cents. There’s $5, $10. So these are all the basic money skills we’re trying to target. If you want to use more accurate pricing, you could print out little tags and put down on there, this one’s $4.67 or $3.29, that way you can practice the dollar up method with some of those higher-level price tags.  Here are some of the skills you can work on:

• mock transaction scenarios
• item & price identification
• recognizing items “on sale”
• simple money math subtracting “on sale” price
• next dollar up method
• comparison shopping
• Recipe items (shopping list).

No Room for a Grocery Store? No Problem…Use an Interactive Bulletin Board

I’m not a huge fan of decorating bulletin boards. So for me, if I can make it functional, perfect. The nice part about interactive bulletin boards is they don’t take up too much space, it gets students up and moving, and you can switch these out if you want to do like a department store theme or a hardware store theme, grocery store. And that way it’s changing it up all the time.

Check out interactive bulletin boards here.

Student Businesses

This is an awesome way to practice so many different skills, as well as help fundraise money for your classroom. That way you can use money towards field trips, or you can use money towards a cooking lesson and so on. So some of the money skills that are covered when you are doing a student business is students can figure out the product costs and pricing an item to make a profit. They’re also adding prices if selling multiple products they are getting hands-on money handling when they are selling their items to customers. And they’re working on also giving change back to the customers. If the customer gives them a dollar over amount, they can also practice budgeting money towards more supplies or what they’re going to spend that money on.

Cooking Lessons

Your first thought is, okay, what does cooking have to do with money? But as I had said earlier, when you’re doing these fundraising efforts, or you’re dealing with money to raise for cooking lessons or field trips, this is how you’re going to be practicing your money and skills. So I know a lot of teachers do the cooking lessons, and sometimes they’ll go and get the supplies themselves, but you should make a community-based instruction lesson out of it. It’s an opportunity to go off-campus and then you get to practice skills of going shopping. So after you go over a recipe in your lesson, you can make a list of the items needed for the recipe.

If you are unable to go off campus, utilize your free weekly circular store ads. Then there’s a lot of stores that also have online shopping as well. Check out this shopping list activity here.

Secret Santa/Gift Exchange

Here’s a great activity for around the holidays. This is a dollar store secret Santa, or if you want to call it the secret snowflake, whatever you want to call it, I have a freebie for you (head to the blog link right below to download this freebie). This is a great way to cover basic money skills. And on top of that, the students get to experience the gift of giving.  To read more about this activity and to download the freebie, check out this blog post:  Dollar Store Secret Santa Gift Exchange

Bingo is one of my favorite things to do, and yes, I have adults, but we still play bingo. I think it’s a great way to practice names, values, vocabulary, whatever it is because you’re asking the student to basically match something. Check out these money bingo games here .

Scavenger Hunts

Another great community-based instruction activity would be a scavenger hunt. So this would be something that you can do if you don’t feel like spending any money, or you can do it with a recipe. When you’re doing a cooking lesson, it’s similar to a shopping list, but without the spending. So you’ll give students a list of groceries to find the prices for, and they can go throughout the store, looking for those items and finding the price. If you want to make it a little bit tougher, you can ask them to find the price that was the least expensive, or you can find the price that was the most expensive.  You can give students a budget and then have them pick out brands and items that they like that are within their budget. Check out these grocery store scavenger hunt activities & worksheets .

These are a great way to get students using money (or fake money) hands-on, or if you do them digitally, it is still a great way to get students using money in a functional way.  You can set up a variety of task boxes that include:

• task cards,
• sorting coins
• sorting bills
• placing money in a cash register in the correct spot
• clipping the correct amount of cash to the price tag
• clipping the correct amount of cash to the store ad (cut and laminate prices from a store ad, students will use the next dollar up method)

Need adapted task box resources for teaching money skills? Check these out:

Money Digital Task Boxes (Drag & Drop)

Money Task Box Task Card Sets

Thanks for reading!

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