Teaching kiddos to master identifying and counting money requires
1) ultimate patience 2) manipulatives 3) games and repetition
4) catchy songs and poems!
If you’re looking for the DIGITAL resources for distance learning, click here for this blog post!
In a regular classroom setting, we spend a week on identifying coins/values.
Examples of activities to introduce coins:
– Using giant replicas of coins and read alouds to learn the details of each coin. This could be as easy as printing off Google images, laminating and putting magnet strips on the back!
– Playing “Coin Challenge” as a daily Math Warm Up. Students are divided into two teams and I randomly call on a students name to identify the coin/value on the flash card I hold up. If they get it right, their team gets a point. Points are collected all week and winning team gets to have “shoes off” during Math time on Friday.
– Repetition of poems and songs! These are a couple of favs:
Money Poem
Hey, Honey Bunny! I know my money, money!
– Sorting play money! Nothing beats hands on exposure!
– Playing partner card games: Memory and Coin War!
For Coin War, students each have a stack of cards (coin values, coin names, coins on heads and tails) face down. They flip over a card at the same time. The player with the highest value gets both cards. Game continues until one player is out of cards (or the timer goes off). See video for example!
To get the most accurate check for mastery on coin identification, I meet with students individually to see if they can identify the heads, tails and value of each coin. Click here or the image for a link to FREEBIE of the checklist I use! All you need is images of coins.
After mastering the coins and their values, we start recognizing the relationships among coins! For example, 5 pennies = 1 nickel, 2 nickels = 1 dime, and so forth! We review the word “decompose” and come up with as many ways to decompose each coin as we can.
I put coin puzzles in a station for students to continue practicing relationships!
Before teaching the kiddos to count a collection of coins, it’s best to have mastered skip counting and number patterns. We review skip counting by placing coins on a 120 chart while skip counting (such as, using nickels as place holders when skip counting by 5s and dimes when counting by 10s).
We revisit the beloved Coin War Game, but this time using comparison symbols. I cut straws in half for students to create the signs. Students again turn over the card on the top of their stack at the same time, but this time take turns creating the symbol to make the comparison statement. Their partner checks the symbol and, of course, the one with the greatest total gets the two cards played in that round.
The real fun is teaching mixed coins! I teach my students to order from greatest to least before skip counting. We do this by using a Counting Coins Mat, 120 chart and dry erase markers! See picture examples below! This strategy is taught through a self-checking slideshow in the DIGITAL resource for counting mixed coins.
Have you seen these suction spinners from Amazon?! They make for all kinds of great games in the classroom!
SPINNING FOR COINS BATTLE: To review mixed coins, we divide into teams. Students are drawn at random to spin and place a magnetic coin on the board. Once 3-4 coins are spun, another team member sequences the coins from greatest to least. More players are drawn to skip count the totals underneath the sequenced coins. This game is a favorite and so effective on reinforcing strategies to count mixed coins!
If you don’t already know, I’ve been obsessed with using digital task cards using QR Code Hunts for yeaaarrss! I’ve made them for Science, Math and Phonics for almost the whole year. It might be a problem. 🙂 However, the kids NEVER get bored with them! I print, cut and elect a classmate to post the QR codes around the room. They use iPads to hunt, scan & solve the task cards. This is great for partner work or even independently. I have printable options with all my QR Code Hunts! Just in case technology fails, there’s not enough iPads or whatever the reason is that particular day. 😉
There are two QR Code Hunts in my Money Masters resource:
Counting Sets of Like Coins &
Counting Mixed Coins
These are great to use for assessments or just practice!
Interested in more math QR code hunts? Click here for the MEGA Math Bundle!
Happy Teaching Money!
– Jillian Duguid