Financial literacy activity
Store Play
Set up a pretend store with toys and household items! Practice buying and selling with play money. Learn about exchanging money for goods.
Materials and setup
- household items for 'store'
- sticky notes for price tags
- play money or real coins
- bag or purse
- paper for sales log
How this changes by age
Pre-K (ages 3–4)
Set up a pretend store with toys and household items! Practice buying and selling with play money. Learn about exchanging money for goods.
Steps
- Set up a 'store' on a table with 6-8 items: toys, snacks, books.
- Make simple price tags: everything costs 1, 2, or 3 play coins.
- Give your child a bag of play coins and be the shopkeeper.
- Child picks an item, reads the price (with help), and counts out the coins.
- Switch roles! Child becomes the shopkeeper and makes change for you.
Learning objectives
- Understand that items cost money and you must pay to receive them
- Count out a specific number of coins to match a price
- Practice social interaction through buyer-seller role play
Kindergarten (ages 5–6)
Run a store with real price tags and make change! Use coins to pay, count change, and keep a sales log. Practice adding prices for multiple items.
Steps
- Set up a store with 10+ items and price tags from 1 cent to 25 cents.
- Child shops with a coin purse of real coins (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters).
- Practice paying with exact change: 'This costs 15 cents. Can you make 15 cents?'
- Buy 2 items and add the prices together.
- Shopkeeper keeps a sales log: write down each item sold and the price.
Learning objectives
- Identify and count real coins (penny, nickel, dime, quarter)
- Make exact change for prices up to 25 cents
- Add two prices together to find a total
Early elementary (ages 6–8)
Run a full store with dollar prices, sales tax, receipts, and making change with bills and coins. Track inventory and calculate daily totals.
Steps
- Set up a store with 15+ items priced from $0.50 to $10.00.
- Create a simple inventory sheet listing each item and how many are in stock.
- Shopkeeper writes receipts for each sale: item name, price, tax (round to nearest 10 cents), and total.
- Customer pays with bills and coins. Shopkeeper calculates and gives correct change.
- At the end, add up all receipts to find total sales for the day.
- Compare inventory: How many items did you sell? What was the most popular?
Learning objectives
- Calculate prices with simple sales tax added
- Make change using bills and coins for multi-dollar transactions
- Track inventory and calculate daily sales totals
- Write itemized receipts with accurate math
Upper elementary (ages 8–10)
Operate a store simulation with wholesale costs, retail markup, and end-of-day profit/loss calculations. Use the numbers to make simple pricing decisions without overcomplicating the business model.
Steps
- Set up a store where each item has a wholesale cost (what you paid) and a retail price (what you charge). Calculate the markup percentage for each.
- Assign a family member a helper role such as greeter, stocker, or cashier.
- Run the store for a set period. Track every sale with receipts including cost, price, and profit per item.
- Calculate end-of-day results: Total Revenue - Total Costs (wholesale + supplies) = Profit or Loss.
- Analyze: Which items had the best profit margin? Which sold the most? Should you change any prices?
- Write a short 'Business Report' summarizing the day: revenue, costs, profit, best sellers, and one pricing recommendation for tomorrow.
Learning objectives
- Understand wholesale cost, retail price, and profit margin calculations
- Track multiple expense categories and calculate net profit/loss
- Analyze sales data to make pricing and inventory decisions
- Write a short business report with financial data and recommendations
Safety and evidence note
Read the full activity before beginning. An adult should supervise tools, heat, food, outdoor work, movement, and experiments as appropriate. Completion records that the activity was done; the child’s explanation, work sample, photo, or demonstration is stronger evidence of learning than a completion check alone.
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