Show me the Money

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We have been practicing making amounts of money in as many combinations as possible. Today we used a program on the smartboard and the students showed me their coins as each item for sale was displayed. We also practiced trying to make the amounts with the fewest and the greatest amount of coins possible. You can try this at home with real coins for even more everyday learning.

Money Games

This week in math we started a new unit of focus on money. Although we will still be doing some worksheets during this study, many of our activities will be based on role playing and manipulative games. We learned two new games today to practice recognizing coins and exchanging values of coins.

In the sock game two students play together and take turns reaching into a sock to pull out a coin. The other student is challenged to find the same coin just by touch. It sounds like a very simple game, but the kids really love playing it. In the process they internalize the names of the coins quickly.

The second game is called Race for a Dollar. Students take turns rolling a die and getting coins on each turn. For example if a 4 is rolled, then the student takes 4 pennies and places them on his game board. In each turn more coins are added to the board, and students trade in pennies for nickels and dimes, then quarters, and eventually a dollar. Whoever makes the dollar first wins the game. This game helps students learn about money combinations and equivalencies.

A Trip to the Bank

On Thursday our class, along with Mrs. Reeves' class, went to Fifth Third bank as part of our money project. Students had fun learning about what happens there, and took a tour behind the scenes. They got to see the safety deposit boxes and the vault. It was a lot smaller than I expected. Students were able to get some of their questions answered that we had generated in phase one. They made observations and counted various items. They also completed rubbings and made observational drawing and diagrams.

Coin Rubbings

To go along with our money project, we did an activity suggested by Mrs. Simmons the art teacher. Students created their own coins using foil and paper. Everyone made a template of a face either as a profile or looking straight at you. They cut it out and added layers of card stock or string to the paper to give it thickness. When they placed the foil over the template and rubbed, all of the edges came through, and you could see lots of details just like on a regular coin. They also added designs and decorations to the front using an etching technique. I was very pleased with their efforts and impressed with the detail they put forth on this activity. I know they enjoyed working with their own coin designs.