Play the dice game with third graders to teach them how to count money. Divide the children into groups containing four or five children. Each group is given the items needed, which are three colored dice, red, blue and white, a dollar bill, change, small toys and a shoe box. Each die is assigned a specific coin. The red die represents pennies, the blue die is nickels and the white die is dimes. A child chooses a toy out of the shoebox to purchase. To find out the price, the child rolls the three dice. The number on each die is multiplied times the value of the die. The answers are added up to find the price. For example, the red die says 3, so it's 3 cents; the blue die says 4, so it's 20 cents; and the white die says 6, so it's 60 cents. These amounts are added up to 83 cents. The student pays with the dollar bill and the other children calculate the amount of change.
The teacher gives each child a Bingo card that contains pictures of items with a money value by each. The money values on the cards total up to $10 and the object of this game is to be the first student to have less than $3 left that is not crossed off on their card. Each time they cross an item off, they track it on a separate sheet by subtracting the amount from $10. Each item is then subtracted from the new total until someone reaches less than $3. This game varies from regular Bingo because the children are not looking for a specific number of spaces crossed off in a row.
Divide students into partners and allow them to take turns ordering lunch from their partner. The groups are given a menu with prices and play money to pay and make change. One partner orders food and the other adds up the total. The student ordering pays money and the other makes the correct change. They take turns back and forth playing this game.
Give each child five pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters and divide them into partners. The partners each flip one of their coins, of same value, at the same time. If one child's coin lands on heads and the others lands on tails, the child with the heads-up coin captures both coins. If both children's coin lands on the same side, each keeps his own. The game continues to be played until one child has no more coins. Throughout the game, the children can add up the total value of coins in their possession.