Print play money or use monopoly money, and ask parents to donate items for a treasure box. Ask for modeling clay, matchbox cars, baby dolls, playing cards and art supplies. Give each item donated a dollar value. During a two-week period, reward kids using play money. Assign dollar or coin values for good behavior, positive attitude, helping others, sharing, reading books and completing homework. Each time the child performs one of these activities, reward him the amount of money you assign. At the end of the period, allow the children to purchase items from the treasure box using the money they've earned. Give change, if necessary, and let it carry over to the next month when you start all over.
Give each student a picture of a penny, nickel, dime and quarter as well as that of a $1, $5, $10, and $20 bill. Teach students how much each is worth. Also give them some quick examples of what each denomination could buy. For example, a deck of cards costs $1, a pizza costs $5 and a movie ticket costs $10. Draw several blank circles and rectangles on a piece of paper to represent money. Have the children create their own personal money and assign values to each. Afterward, review the values of real money.
Teach your students a fun poem about coins. "Penny, penny, easily spent, you're copper brown and worth one cent. Nickel, Nickel, thick and fat, you're worth five cents. I know that. Dime, dime, little and thin, I remember you're worth 10. Quarter, quarter, big and bold, you're worth 25, I am told." Print the poem and give it to each student. Practice it every day for a week and then quiz the students on how much each coin is worth.
Make a worksheet with several items your students might enjoy purchasing and write a dollar value above each picture. For instance, you might assign an ice cream cone as 50 cents or a pet gold fish as $1. Cut coins and dollars out of paper. Tell children to glue the appropriate amount of money to each corresponding item. To make it more interesting, give students less money than they would actually need to complete the worksheet so they will have to make choices on exactly what they want to buy. With this method, you can also have the children tell you how much money they have left over.