Free Printable Garden Theme Adding Money Activity

Teaching money is an important life skill and it begins in early elementary school. Once children are comfortable with counting groups of dollars and coins, they can begin adding amounts. Since it’s garden planting time here, it’s been fun to make garden theme learning activities. This garden math adding money activity is a fun twist on traditional math worksheets. My second grader loves to be in charge, so letting her select her own math problems is perfect!

two photos of a printable garden-themed adding money activity for kids.

overhead photo of a blank addition worksheet and cards with pictures of different plants and their prices.

a child is completing a garden math activity by adding money amounts.

photo of a child placing cards with pictures of produce and their prices on a blank math worksheet.

a child is writing total amounts on a garden theme adding money worksheet.

Recommended Grade Level:

2nd Grade

Upper Elementary

Supply List
Coordinating Activities

Garden Math Printable Supplies:

Paper
Laminating Supplies
Velcro Dots
Dry Erase Markers or Dry Erase Crayons

free printable memory matching money game for kids

text says [free printable money activity for kids] photo of several money counting clip cards with coin values

Garden Adding Money Printable

The garden math seed packets are easy to print and give a lot of opportunities to practice adding as you mix and match the seed packets. There are two different recording mats to choose from. One allows the learner to place the seed packet right on the page, while the other requires the student to write each dollar amount within a number sentence frame. Over the years, we’ve compiled a lot of interactive activities to teach money. You can check them out here: Fun Ideas for Creating a Money Unit Study.

Money and Skip Counting

Since counting coins begins with a firm handle on skip-counting, check out some precursor activities here:

How to Use the Garden Adding Money Printable

As with any good activity, you can tweak the activity to work for you and your students! My daughter worked on these as mental math. She didn’t use manipulatives or re-write the problems vertically in a notebook. She was very proud that she got all of them right!

If you’re also working on quick recall of math facts without pencil/paper, check out this game: Math Fact Make Ten with Sticky Notes.

However, if you’re not working on mental math right now, feel free to use coins and dollars, or show students how to re-write the problem vertically. That in itself is a great lesson on lining up the decimal points.

Materials You Will Need for Garden Adding Money Printable:

Paper
Laminating Supplies
Velcro Dots
Dry Erase Markers or Dry Erase Crayons

practice adding money with this free printable garden math activity. choose two seed packets and add them together. perfect for a spring math lesson.

How to Use the Garden Adding Money Printable

To prep: Print and laminate the garden math printable. We chose to laminate the black and white page as well so that we could use it multiple times. You could just use it as a student recording page instead.

Cut apart the seed packet cards.

Place a velcro dot on the back of each seed packet and another on the large, colored recording page.

To use: Select two seed packets for each money addition problem. Have the student add together the prices of the seed packets to find the total price.

Jaida enjoyed telling me punny jokes while she was working on her math.

“Ahhh!!! There’s a leek in the house!!”

“That’s so corn-y.”

I love second grader jokes!

Yay! You did it. What Now?

Next step…the grocery store! If you dare to take your young learner to the grocery store, it would be fun to practice out in the world. Grab two items off the shelf and use a calculator to add them up, or bring your recording sheet with you.

Ways to Differentiate Garden Adding Money

Make this activity meaningful for all learners! Here are some ideas to make it easier/more difficult:

Give children dollar bills and coins to “pay” for the total of the seed packets.
Ask thoughtful questions like, “How many seed packets can you get for $2.00? What is the most amount of seed packets you can get for $3.00? If I buy _____ and ______, how much change will I get if I pay with $5.00?”
Get some newspaper flyers from home improvement stores and have the kids plan their own garden with pretend money.
Give them a budget of $10 or $25 and have them figure out what they can purchase for that amount.
Use the cards to just practice reading dollars/cents amounts.
Instead of adding the amounts, make the dollar amount of each seed packet with dollars/coins.

Explore Learning Garden Theme Activities

Sometimes you have different levels of learners in your classroom or home. For younger kids not quite ready to tackle adding dollar amounts, try our Mini Spring Garden Sensory Bin or preschool Garden Theme Shape Posters that coordinate nicely with this seed packet math activity.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are frequently asked questions about the garden math printable.

Do I need to print both recording sheets?

No, you can choose the one that’s going to work best for your learners. However, you may find that each one has its benefits for individual learners.

How do I teach proper use of the decimal point?

Explain that it separates dollars and cents, ensuring students understand that amounts to the left are whole dollars and amounts to the right are cents.

Can I use coin manipulatives to teach adding money?

Yes. It’s often very helpful for kids to first count out the value of each seed packet and then add them by combining the two amounts.

How can I ensure students are adding correctly?

Teach them to double-check their work by re-adding the amounts in reverse order, using estimation to predict a reasonable total, and verifying their results with a calculator.

Go ahead and grab this easy-prep printable today! Let us know how you used this activity to help your students practice adding money.