Money Bags is a board game from Learning Resources designed for kids to practice counting and exchanging coins. It is a relatively quick game to play, probably 10-15 minutes. The game is ideal for first/second graders (or older children struggling with money math.) Even younger children could play with some help/modification.
The game includes a board with attached spinner, 100 plastic coins, 10 paper dollars, 4 game markers, and a die.
Game play is simple. A player rolls the die and moves that many spaces on the board. Each space on the board is marked with an amount of money to collect from the bank.
However, before collecting the coins, the player must spin the spinner which gives an additional restriction on the coins they can use. They may spin no nickels, no dimes, no quarters, or any coins. So, for example, they may have landed on 26 cents but then spin no quarters, so they would find a different way to make the amount. Of course if you have young students just learning coin values you could skip that step.
The player must then count out the coins from the bank. There are also “money bag” spaces on the game board for collecting the jackpot (one penny, one nickel, one dime, and one quarter.) Finally there are “change it up” spaces where you can exchange the coins you have for equivalent coins or a dollar bill.
At the end of the Money Bags game, everyone counts their money and the player with the most money wins. If your child/students are just learning coin values it may be helpful to print a coin value equivalency/addition chart. Some parents playing at home report using real coins instead of plastic and letting their child keep the money!
This isn’t one of my favorite math games as there is a lot of luck and not much critical thinking. However, the kids enjoy it and it is a great way to practice a specific skill using hands on objects instead of a worksheet.