Play Money

Play money is a great way to practice a whole host of skills- counting, making change, buying and selling- as well as allowing you to add a cultural element to your activities. If you have a color printer you are all set to print out sets of play money.
For my first grade classes, I printed out small copies of Venezuela's Bolívar Fuerte from Google Images, cut them out and put each set in a small ziploc baggie. Each set contained 2 each of the 2, 5, 10, and 1 of the 20 bolívar denominations. I started with just these lower denominations because my first graders can count up to 30, so didn't want denominations that were too high for them to count to.
Our introduction was quite simple- "Show me 5 bolívares" , "Show me 10 bolívares", etc. Each kid had to hold up the correct amount. It becomes more difficult as you give an amount where they have to combine bills to make the correct amount ("Show me 7 bolívares"- 5 +2) Tip: make sure your students understand this concept- talk with the gen ed teachers if you are not sure. Different schools approach addition and money in math class at different times in the curriculum and in different grades. My first graders have experience with working with money, but maybe other schools don't start that skill until second grade. It makes sense to do these activities with students who understand these concepts- you can move a lot faster and in more depth.
Once my students have experience with the various bills, we set up a store with different fruits and vegetables that one could buy in Venezuela. This was a great opportunity to review old vocab and introduce a few new ones. I created prices for products and kids took turns being the vender- first I ask for fruits/ veggies, then the kiddos get a turn. You can take this in a lot of directions- from very simple to more complex depending on the level of your students. I keep the activity simple- 'Two apples, please', etc. Older students could do a lot more with the same type of activity.
Have fun!