Show Me The Money

This week in math the topic of my lessons are dealt around counting and identifying money: coins and dollars. Yesterday, I introduced the topic by making Money Boards. To create this, I used glittery foam boards and glued pipe cleaners on the board so that it was divided into 4 squares: penny, nickel, dime, quarter. Next, I took Velcro and put it on both the board (2 pieces in each square) and on the back of foam that was labeled: 1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents and 25 cents. I also put Velcro on an actual penny, nickel, quarter, and dime. When presented to the students, I had the value foam pieces and actual money in a plastic baggie so that the only thing on their board was the labels: penny, nickel, dime, quarter. First I wanted to know what the students already knew about coins so I explained that I wanted them to take the values and the coins and Velcro them in the correctly labeled box. Through this opening activity, I was able to understand what coins the students already were able to identify and which they struggled with. I was also able to get an understanding of whether or not they knew the different coin values. Out of the 4 students that I have at this time, 2 of them were able to identify at least 2 of the coins and their correct value. Now, after going through the coins more, I use this same activity as a "practice" session in which the students can practice identifying what they have learned over the past few days. The students really enjoy this activity because the sparkly foam has seemed to excite them. They also really enjoy Velcroing the different coins to the foam and pulling them off. I highly recommend anyone who is teaching money to make these boards!