Calculation Cafe

Run a pretend café in your classroom so students can practice math skills while working out the subtotal, sales tax, tip and change.

Set up your café

Are you a student? If so, open the café link your teacher sent you.

Order 3

  • Latte $3.95
  • Croissant $2.95
Subtotal
$6.90 ✓
Sales tax (8%)
$0.55 ✓
Total

Work it out on paper, then enter your answer. Try a wrong one too!

How it works

  1. Set up your café

    Choose the menu and prices, the sales tax, and whether customers pay by card or cash.

  2. Share the link

    Send the café link to your students, who open it on their devices.

  3. Students run the register

    They take orders, work out every amount on paper, and hand in a Shift Report when they're done.

What teachers and students can do

Teachers

  • Pick what’s on the menu and what it costs
  • Turn sales tax and tipping on or off
  • Choose whether customers pay by card, or with cash and counted change
  • Select from any of 46 currencies
  • Allow a calculator, or keep it pencil and paper
  • Print a menu board for the classroom wall
Set up your café

Students

  • Open the teacher’s link — no account needed
  • Play Solo, or with a Partner as the customer
  • Work out each amount on paper, then type it in
  • Get a hint after two incorrect entries
  • Count change out of the cash drawer
  • Download a Shift Report PDF for teachers to grade

Money images: US money from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the US Mint (public domain). Euro banknote and coin images © European Central Bank (modified). UK banknote images © Bank of England; UK coin images: The Royal Mint, 2023. Canadian banknote images: Source: Bank of Canada. Canadian coins drawn for Calculation Cafe.