3rd grade making change worksheets

Third grade making change worksheets step up to dollars-and-cents prices: Cost: $3.45, Paid: $5.00, with a line for the change. Your child counts up through the coins to the next dollar, then whole dollars to the amount paid, writing answers like $1.55.

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core 2.MD.C.8, 4.MD.A.2.

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The kind of problems you'll get

Find the change.

  1. Cost: $4.36 Paid: $5.00 Change:

    Answer: $0.64

  2. Cost: $9.53 Paid: $10.00 Change:
  3. Cost: $11.81 Paid: $20.00 Change:

Every print pulls a fresh set of problems at this level, so a make-up test or a second sibling never gets the same sheet.

What's on each sheet

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

Keep the count-up even with dollar prices. It's how cashiers do it, and it beats stacking a subtraction full of zeros. From $3.45: a nickel to $3.50, quarters to $4.00, then dollars to $5.00. Have your child jot each jump and add them at the end, and check that the written answer keeps two cents places: $1.55, never $1.5.

Watch for: Kids take the cost from 100 no matter what was paid, so a $5 bill gets the same change as a dollar. The count-up has to land on the amount actually handed over. Kids drop the last cents digit and write $1.5 instead of $1.50. Money always gets two places after the decimal point, even when the last one is a zero.

Common questions about making change

My child learned this in second grade. Why is it here again?
Third grade revisits money as review and extension: prices move into dollars and cents, like $3.45 paid with a $5 bill, so the same count-up now runs through coins and whole dollars. It's also quiet practice for subtracting across zeros.
How should answers be written?
In full dollar notation with two cents places: $1.55, not $1.5 or 155¢. If the change comes out to whole dollars, $2.00 is the expected form.

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Aligned to Common Core 2.MD.C.8, 4.MD.A.2. Reviewed by the One more sheet curriculum team. Content version 123, updated July 2026.