{FREE} Cupcake Shop: Money Math Problems

Are you looking for a fun and engaging way to teach and practice money math skills with your kids? Look no further! This cupcake shop set of money math problems will help kids practice adding money and learn real life math skills. Plus, they’ll get an introduction to adding decimals as they see different money combinations and find the total cost of each cupcake. You could even extend this lesson by baking cupcakes of your own and practicing fractions and measurement in the kitchen! Learn more about these money math problems below.

*Please Note: This post contains affiliate links which help support the work of this site. Read our full disclosure here.*

Cupcake Shop: Real Life Money Math Problems

Using a simple menu, kids will find the total price of each cupcake in the cupcake shop. This allows kids to use several different skills in a fun, interactive way.

First, kids look at the cupcake they wish to purchase and compare it to the shop menu. They determine the cost of each piece of their cupcake (the flavor, frosting and the toppings) and write them down on their cards.

Each answer recording card has broken things down for kids to help them get started and make sure they don’t miss any parts of their cupcakes when adding up the cost.

Once they’ve written down all the costs for that cupcake, it’s time to add it up!

Money Math: Adding Decimals

Although this set is designed to help kids add up money to find the total cost, this is also a helpful introduction to adding decimals. Using money is one example of why kids need to understand decimal values and operations with decimals.

If your kids aren’t ready for a formal algorithm, however, I would have them build each money amount with play money. They can then combine their money using place value and work to find the total before recording the final answer on their card.

This will give kids practice counting and adding money in a hands on way.

Later, you can then work through an example on the card to show regrouping or working with decimals.

Extending the Lesson:

After students have completed all the money math problems included in the download, there are lots of ways to continue practicing.

First, you could have kids place all the totals in order to find the least expensive cupcake and most expensive cupcake. Again, this will help strengthen their understanding of place value and decimals.

You could also let them use the cupcake menu to choose their own cupcake combination and find the total cost.

Lastly, kids could work with a partner to set up an actual cupcake shop. One partner will make a selection and find the total cost of their cupcake. They can then ‘pay’ for it with play money and their partner will then have to determine the amount of change that’s due.

Then they switch places!

Then kids are working on adding and subtracting decimals in real life.

I hope you enjoy this set of money math problems and can find lots of fun ways to incorporate this into your math classroom!

{Click HERE to go to my shop and grab the FREE set of Cupcake Shop Money Math Problems!}

If you’re looking for more ways to help kids make sense of decimals in meaningful ways, you might like my Add & Subtract Decimals Resource Collection! This includes visual models, partner practice and a ‘sundae shop’ real life problem set similar to this one.