Whether buying a snack or saving for a toy, kids encounter money math everywhere. Teaching how to make change helps students feel confident and capable in real-world situations.

Making change represents one of the most fundamental and practical life skills students will use throughout their lives. However, this seemingly simple calculation involves complex mathematical thinking. The ability to count money, subtract amounts, and give correct change requires students to master multiple concepts simultaneously while building essential financial literacy.

Common Challenges Students Face When Learning About Change

Understanding why students struggle with making change helps instructors provide better support. The abstract nature of coin values creates several specific hurdles.

Hierarchical Thinking Difficulties

Comprehending monetary values requires thinking about units at two levels simultaneously.

For a dime to make sense, a child learns that it represents both one coin and ten pennies. Practicing this dual-level thinking when counting coins can prove challenging for young learners.

Regrouping and Subtraction Struggles

When making change involves regrouping, students face additional complexity. Teaching money through subtraction with regrouping remains challenging for many.

For instance, giving change from one dollar for a 75-cent purchase requires students to mentally convert that dollar bill into smaller denominations before determining how much change to give back.

Limited Real-World Experience

Today’s students have limited exposure to physical money due to digital payment methods. Without regular practice counting money and handling different coins and bills, students lack the tactile experience that reinforces monetary values.

Teaching kids these money concepts requires intentional practice with actual currency.

Anxiety with Money Math

Many students freeze when faced with money calculations in real scenarios. The pressure of getting the right amount combined with unfamiliarity creates stress.

Students who confidently solve paper problems may struggle when asked to count actual change or determine if they have enough money for a purchase.

Hands-On Tools and Visual Supports to Teach Making Change

Physical manipulatives transform abstract money concepts into concrete learning experiences. Teaching money skills with a multisensory approach engages students through sight, touch, and movement.

Integrated Manipulatives

Demme Learning’s integrated manipulatives provide an excellent foundation for teaching money concepts. These color-coded blocks help students visualize relationships between different coins and bills.

Many students confuse the value of coins with their size, believing nickels are worth more than dimes. Using manipulatives reinforces that value, not size, determines coin worth.

Use manipulative money blocks to teach the structure of money, such as how ten pennies become one dime, or how four quarters equal one dollar, by building with the blocks. 

For example, when subtracting 75¢ from $1.00, have students model the dollar using the hundred or dollar block, and four 25 or quarter blocks on top (or other value blocks to make 100), then remove three quarter blocks. Visually, the leftover is a quarter block (the change). This makes abstract subtraction tactile and concrete. Transition to real coins to reinforce recognition, handling, and real-world readiness.

The Build-Write-Say approach integrates visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learning as students practice making change. 

Real Coins and Play Money

Using real coins provides invaluable hands-on experience. Students benefit from exploring, sorting, and counting actual currency. 

Combining real coins with play money allows practice counting different amounts without the pressure of using real money in every example. Even in a learning environment, when students know that it’s “real” money, they can experience anxiety about making mistakes.

Engaging Activities to Teach Making Change

Active learning through games and role-play makes money concepts stick by keeping students engaged. These fun ways to teach counting money help students learn essential skills through hands-on practice.

Classroom Store Simulation

Setting up a classroom store or school store brings money learning to life. Create a mini-marketplace where students take turns being customers and cashiers. Stock your store with supplies, toys, or food items with price tags.

This activity helps students practice giving change and determining if customers pay the exact amount.

Race to a Dollar Game

Students roll the dice and collect the corresponding amount of money in coins. 

To encourage thinking about equivalent values, force exchanges by limiting (not eliminating) the number of pennies available. Students practice counting mixed coins as they work toward building one dollar.

Coin Cup Challenge

Coin cups make excellent small-group instruction activities when teaching kids to count coins. 

Use small plastic cups with different coins in each cup. Students count their cups’ contents, then trade cups to verify each other’s work, practicing with various combinations.

Skip Count and Switch

Practice switching between counting patterns. Select a target number between 50-100, then guide students to count by 25s for quarters, tens for dimes, fives for nickels, and ones for pennies.

This fun math activity reinforces skip-counting patterns essential for money counting.

Change-Making Scenarios

Create task cards with real-world problems: “You buy a notebook for $3.47 and pay with a $5 bill. What change should you receive?”

Students work through scenarios using manipulatives before transitioning to mental math. These change-making activities can be combined with digital math resources and money worksheets for additional practice.

Strategies for Building Confidence and Real-World Skills

Success with making change requires scaffolded instruction from concrete to abstract thinking. Teaching money effectively means helping students develop both mathematical understanding and practical life skills.

Start with Counting Up

The counting up method provides a natural approach to make change. It builds number sense and reinforces coin equivalencies.

Identify the total cost and amount paid by the customer, then count up from the cost to the amount paid, starting with coins and progressing to dollar bills. Using blocks, students can build the amount spent (e.g., 65¢), then visually add coins (blocks) until they reach the amount paid (e.g., 85¢).This mirrors how cashiers often determine exact change.

Use the Exchange Method

Present subtraction problems using concrete examples. When solving 62 – 38, demonstrate the process by modeling with dimes and pennies. Students learn to exchange larger denominations for smaller ones.

Teaching this exchange method using manipulatives helps them understand regrouping meaningfully.

Progressive Complexity

Begin with amounts under 25 cents using only pennies and nickels. Gradually introduce dimes, then quarters, and finally dollar bills. This progression allows students to master each level before adding complexity while avoiding common mistakes.

Connect to Daily Life

Involve families by suggesting at-home practice. Next store trip, let your child help count change at checkout. Set up a home “store” for practice. These real-life math connections help to reinforce classroom learning.

When kids pay for purchases and receive change in real situations, they develop practical money skills and learn delayed gratification.

Celebrate Thinking Process

Focus on students’ reasoning rather than just correct answers. When a student explains how they determined change, praise their thinking strategy. This builds confidence, encourages mathematical communication, and helps students understand concepts more deeply.

Building Confident Money Handlers for Life

Teaching how to make change extends beyond arithmetic. Through hands-on activities, visual tools, and real-world practice, students develop number sense and practical money skills. Combining concrete manipulatives with actual currency bridges classroom learning and everyday application.

Understanding how numbers work becomes clearer when students connect it to counting quarters or calculating totals. These foundational money skills build immediate real-world competence and prepare students for the complex financial concepts they’ll face in the future.

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