Math · Pre-K to Grade 3–4

Lemonade stand

Your child runs the stand and gives change like a shopkeeper.

Your child runs a lemonade stand. Customers pay for a cup, and your child checks the money and gives change the way a shopkeeper does, counting up from the price to what was handed over.

Pre-K to Grade 3–4
30 min
Kitchen things
On the screen

Free to sign up.

Is it a good fit?

Ready if Your child can drop coins into a jar and count them, one tap each.
Too much today? The Pre-K level: one coin a cup, then the jar tipped out and counted.
Too easy? The Grade 3–4 level: one and a half a cup, a five note, and the float taken off the jar to see what the stand took.

What your child practises

Coins into the jar
Is that enough?
Change by counting up
What the stand took

Listen for

“Five for a three? Start at three: four, five. Two back.”

If your child says something like this, in their own words, the idea has landed. Finishing the rounds means they took part; this is the learning.

Your part

Cups, a jug, a sign, and your own coins as the float, for a real stand
Each question has a Read it to me button
The family are the customers, by name, or your child plays with the Pet alone

Take it off the screen (optional)

Run a real stand on a hot day, with the screen as the till and the Pet as the helper.

The full design

What it is

Your child runs the stand. Five customers come one at a time, hand over money for a cup, and your child takes it, checks it, gives change and keeps the jar. Change is given the way a shopkeeper gives it: start at the price and count up to the coin they gave you. It is the other side of The Pet's shop, where the child pays; here the child is paid, and has to give the right amount back.

How it goes

The customer is at the counter with what they are paying, drawn as coins your family uses. If it is exact, one tap puts it in the jar. If it is short, one tap sends them back for the rest. If it is more than the price, the float appears as a tray of coins: your child taps coins onto the mat and the line under it counts up from the price ("2 … 3, 4, 5") until it reaches what the customer gave. A coin that would go past is refused with the sum said aloud. The sign over the till shows the price, the float and the jar all day. At 1–2 the Pet dares a customer who pays in an odd mix of coins, played right then; at K it dares one who pays too much.

The Pet

Notices: "3 back, counted up: 2 … 4, 5." Asks: "5 for a 3? Start at 3, count up to 5." As a customer it pays short at K, is sent back and comes back with the rest; at 1–2 it pays in an odd mix. It never says a customer is wrong, only whether the money is enough.

By band

Pre-K: one coin a cup, into the jar, and at closing time the coins are tipped out and counted, one tap each. K: two prices; the customer hands over coins and the child says whether it is enough. The Pet comes to the counter with too little and is sent back for more. 1–2: customers pay more than the price and the child gives change by counting up from the price on the mat, with the count-up line written as it grows. 3–4: a cup costs one and a half, some customers want two, a five note comes in, and at the end the float you started with is taken off the jar to find what the stand took.

Done, and what counts as evidence

Done = a day at the stand, five customers. The card at the end says what the day held: how many cups, whether change was given without a hint, whether the float was taken off. "Gives change by counting up without help" at 1–2 is an observation you may keep. Never a leaderboard of takings between siblings.

What's personal

Your currency and your coins, from the family settings: a Canadian stand gives change in loonies and quarters, a British one in pounds and 50p, a Jordanian one in dinars and fils. The customers are your family by name from the family tree, the Pet in between; a family with no tree gets the Pet and "a customer", never a made-up name, and the child is never their own customer. The stand is named after the Pet. A real stand on a real day is the best version: the screen is the till and the Pet the helper. The jar is the game's, never a family money record.