Teaching Money Skills in Special Education

When teaching life skill math, make sure that what you are teaching is able to be transferred to life outside of the classroom. Seriously, you don't want to waste your time (and your students' time) on skills that won't be used in the real world! 

One of the easiest ways to do this when teaching money is to make sure the materials in your classroom are realistic.

Realistic Cash Register

I don't know why, but every "play" cash register I have found has spots for 3 bills. Why? I wish I knew! Pretty sure all normal cash registers have 4 (and maybe some bank specific ones have more). So when working with money in your classroom, buy a cash register drawer (amazon affiliate link) to use instead of a play cash register. It is just about the same price as the play version from Lakeshore learning!

Another great option is to see if anyone is donating an old cash register. Ask your local Buy Nothing group on Facebook.

Use Pretend Money...but Realistic Money

Obviously, the real thing is the best thing, but keeping cash in the classroom might not be the best option. Don't buy the play money that is all the same color. 

Students with special needs, they need something that is closer to the real thing like these ones (amazon affiliate link). Plus the color (like on our real dollars) makes it easier to identify which bill is which, which is especially helpful for students who aren't recognizing numbers.

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