Pennies, nickels, and dimes oh my! Oh and quarters, don’t forget about those big ones. I love teaching money, years ago it was a first grade standard and I had so much fun with it.
First let’s start with some great intro videos that I love using and keep my kids engaged.
Here’s a list of good ones you can try in your room.
I love these videos for lessons, this #1 guy is the best!
Fun, catchy songs are helpful too for recognition and remembering worth.
Hairy money has been around for a while and it’s not my idea but if your group of kids needs a new approach this can certainly help you out. Each strand that stands up counts as 5 – so a quarter would have 5 hair strands and it would equal 25 as they point to each hair and count by 5’s. The dime has 2 hairs to represent 2 groups of 5, the nickel gets one hair and the penny gets a dot or freckle. This shows that you have to count by 1’s for him. Most of your students can count by 5’s so it’s a great approach if they are struggling with the concept of money.
Hairy money is another way your students might learn – it’s kind of like the touch point idea in math. It’s just another strategy that can be taught along with skip counting and finding the biggest coin to start with when counting several.
I also have a very engaging unit with poems I’ve written about coins as well as a craft, printables and a center. Find it here.
My students LOVE my coin tin center that helps them practice counting out piles of money. This reinforces looking for the largest amount or worth first also which is super important.
I actually made this center before the Pinterest days guys. Yep, back in 2007. My students loved it, I bought the Altoid tins on line on ebay and decorated them and then grabbed some magnetic coins from lakeshore but you can probably buy them on Amazon now, I mean you can buy anything on Amazon – hello – 2 day shipping and thank you amazon prime.
Here’s how they look, you can use them for a math block/centers. The kids take a coin card place it at the top of the altoid tin and then create that amount in the bottom of the tin with the magnetic coins. It’s easy to check as I walk around or you can encourage peer checking as well. The coins stick perfectly to the altoid tins so it’s fun to use and easy to keep all together.
Won’t fall out ~ they put the money on the bottom and the amount slips on the top ( lid ).
Hope you gained some new ideas that you can use right away for teaching money with your students. As always ~ Happy teaching my friends~
