Do your kids like playing shops? This fun activity to design your own printable play money will add a whole new level of fun and learning to your kids dramatic play.
It makes me smile to see the three year old in charge of the shop and the crazy nine year olds dressing up to be all kinds of weird and wonderful customers. The other day we even had a health inspector visit our ice-cream shop!!
Of course you can’t play shop properly without money. According to my youngest child, you’ll need LOTS of money!
You could buy some play money, but it’s even more fun to make your own currency!
Design Your Own Play Money.
Making your own play money is a super fun activity for kids, with lots of learning opportunities thrown in as well.
Before you download our ‘design your own play money’ printable it’s a good idea to learn a little bit about real money.
Take the time to look at some real money, and ask some questions.
What notes or coins are there?
What designs do they have on them?
What is the money made out of?
What are ‘security features’ of money, why are they used, and can you see them on your money?
It’s a great opportunity to do some research with your kids and find out more about your money.
Our Australian notes are all different sizes and different colours, but all of them are made of plastic and they have an important person on them as well as a little window and other patterns and images.
Our coins all have the Queen on one side and an Australian animal on the other… except for the $2 coin which has an aboriginal elder on it. We learned that our fifty cent coin is a dodecagon – it has twelve sides!
It’s also fun to google and find out what other countries’ money looks like. My kids were fascinated to find out that in the USA all the notes are the same size and they have $1 and $2 notes, whereas we have coins.
Now that you’ve learned all about money it’s time to make some of your own!
You can use markers or pencils to add designs and details to your printable play money. You could even get fancy and use paint to add some special touches.
By the time we were done, our banknotes had animals, the Queen, monsters and quite a few strange people on them. We even had a $50 000 note! (I wish!)
When you’ve added the details to your printable play money, cut it out and you are ready to play.
Design Your Own Play Money Free Printable Activity.
Add an extra level of fun and learning the next time your kids want to play shops, and let me design and make their own play money!
You’ll probably need to print a few copies of this pdf, so everyone can make lots and lots of cash!
You can download the ‘Design Your Own Money’ printable here.
This printable is an A4 sized pdf file, you will need a pdf reader such as adobe acrobat to open it. If you are printing on US ‘letter sized’ paper be sure to select ‘fit’ or ‘shrink to fit’ from your printer options.
Please remember that the printables at picklebums.com are for personal use only, you may not sell, share, or link directly to these files.
Now that you have lots and lots of money it’s time to get back to playing shops!
Need more Imaginative and Dramatic Play Ideas?
If you are new to doing dramatic play with your kids these five simple tips for getting started with imaginative play might help.
And if your kids love dramatic play and you need some more ideas, some of these might help!
Wow — your money looks cool, both the play money and the Australian notes. I’m all in favor of the Euro — it makes traveling in Europe so much easier! — but, really, our coins and notes look kind of dull…
So what do you mean, your notes are made of plastic? Not of some sort of special paper?
Anyway, I’ll just have to copy your idea, this will make for a fun afternoon activity!
So long,
Corinna
OUr notes are made of thin paper like plastic. They are hard to rip and water proof! They used to be paper, but now they are plastic… it’s kinda cool!
That’s so cool. JJ is getting a cash register from her grandparents apparently, so I’ll be back to print off some sheets so she has money to fill it. :)
We were just looking at Australian money the other day on The Math Worksheet Site. Very fun! They have printable money from several different countries (U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, Singapore, and Euros).
While in the U.S. we do have $2 bills, they are very rare and are not often seen in circulation, as they were only printed a few years. Usually people have $1 bills. We have $1 coins, but those are also rare and almost never seen.
My brother and I used to design our own money and then pay my Grandma for our lunch with it. It’s one of my fondest memories. This will be such a handy template for us because I want to do the exact same activity with my children one day!
How clever! My Grade 2s would love to design their own money so thanks for the printable! :-)
What a great idea! I really love this. My 5 and 10 year old would both love this :)
My little girl is just starting to understand that money often gets you things and so ‘money’ is her new favourite word. She’s going to love this. Great printable.
I reckon you have the best printables around :-) Often my go-to place for them!
So fun! get me one of those $50,000 notes please :-)
Such a fun idea for children to design their own money – the denominations as well as the content to be included on it. My children love to play all kinds of games using our cash register. We definitely need to use your printable to create some of our very own unique play money. Thank you for sharing this idea and printable.
I saw this on Facebook, and LOVED it. Can’t wait to print some off to customise.
Hello There!
Can’t say I remember how I stumbled along your blog but I wanted to let you know how grateful I am that I did!!!
From our house to yours, we truly appreciate all of Your creative, FREE, learning printables you have designed and shared with us here!
Every little kindness helps and after spending an arm & a leg on INK these days, a free printable (or 6!:) is a true gift! Thank You again, and Happy Holidays!
Jeanine, Canada new reader!
How interesting! I include information on money in all my travel guides for kids. I had no idea that Australian money was plastic! That is super cool.
Another fantastic idea and printable. Thanks!
Thankyou very much for sharing these! My kids love them! I print them and take them on holidays. Once they’ve been designed and cut out we then play shops (with real items or “rubbish” we’ve collected for this purpose). At the end of the holiday I can put everything in the recycling guilt free. That’s my perfect holiday activity. Thankyou!