We just started learning all about money. We began by discussing why it's important to know how to count money and ways we use money in our everyday lives. We read the kids a story called "Follow the Money" by Loreen Leedy. It is told from the perspective of a quarter. It starts off at the Mint where the quarter is made and he tells the story of meeting other coins, being passed along to various people and the different ways he is used- to buys things, to give change, to donate to charities, etc.
Then, we had discussed all of the coins, their values and the characteristics of each of them. We filled out a chart with all of the information about each coin and how to write the value of each using a cent sign and also using a decimal point and dollar sign. The students can keep these in their folders to use a reference if they get confused. Similar to this one...
We also introduced the dollar. We discussed how many of each coin it would take to make a dollar and practiced skip counting the coins. Skip counting by 25's can be difficult so of course we felt it was only appropriate to come up with a "Dollar Dance" to help them remember! After we do this a few times we can hear the students singing this to themselves at their seats as they try to skip count quarters, and it works every time! Fun for them and fun for us! Here is a video of Mrs. Biel and one of our students demonstrating the "Dollar Dance"...
We have plenty more activities and center ideas so keep checking back!
