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Overview

This "store" game teaches students about money, skip counting, and making change.  There is no strategy involved, and no need to answer any questions correctly, so it's a low-pressure, luck-based game.  

Difficulty: 1st - 3rd grade.

Number of players: 2-5.

Duration: 15-25 minutes for two players.

Game Materials

• A d20 from a set of dragon dice

• One piece of poster-board, construction paper, or normal paper   

• Money

• One figure

Making the Game

I used a half sheet of poster-board for the game board, which is divided into two areas.  The first area is a 5x4 grid, numbered 1-20.  The second grid, which I put underneath the first one, is 1x7.  The 5x4 grid has various "store" items and prices written in, as well as three squares marked "Change $1."  The second grid has a "start" square followed by the days of the week, Monday through Saturday (we take Sunday off).  The whole thing looks like this:  

To make the board look nicer, you can put drawings of the various items into the various squares.  If you want to print out the board using a computer, you could use clipart images.

Scenario

Every week, Hoosier Bob's Convenience Store selects a salesclerk of the week.  This coveted award is given to the person who makes the most sales during that week.  Now, let's see who will be salesman of the week!

Set-Up

Ready the d20 and put the figure on the "Start" field.

Rules

Players take turns collecting money for their "sales" or by making change. At the end of seven rounds, the player who has collected most money wins. 

A player starts her turn by the d20.  Let's say the number that comes up is 12.  Looking at the "12" field on the  board, we can see that the player will sell an action figure and collect 45 cents in return.  The player collects this money from the bank and puts it in her "cash drawer."

If the player rolls 5, 13, or 16, then she is being asked to make change for a customer.  She should count out one dollar in coins and put this in the bank, taking a $1 bill in return.  Also, the grateful customer will give a 50 cent tip, which should be taken from the bank as well.

After all the players have taken a turn, advance the figure to the next field, that is, from "Start" to Monday.   The game ends after everyone has had their turn on Saturday. 

 Adjusting the difficulty

You can make the game more or less difficult by changing the amounts listed on the different squares.  For the youngest kids, you could use whole dollar amounts ($1, $3, $5, and so on).  To make the game more challenging, you could use values like $.89 or $1.27.   

Other Adjustments

I made this a deliberately old-fashioned game (with a convenience store) featuring old-fashioned prices (the toy car costs just 25 cents, for example).  I was primarily interested in teaching my son how to count small amounts of money, especially coins.  Working with nickles and pennies was very helpful for skip-counting by 5 and 10.  

But it's easy to choose  different store theme, like electronics, clothing, or food ... whatever your child will find interesting!