Happy President’s Day Week!
Since Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays are celebrated in February I choose to really study coins during this month as well. Identifying the coins is a report card standard and is sometimes difficult for some of My Young Fives.
I think one of the reasons they have a problem is we also discuss the value of the coins. Children tend to reference things according to size, so my little ones think that because a dime is worth 10 cents it should be the larger coin (the nickel) instead of the other way around.
This makes perfect “cents” because the quarter and fifty cent coins do get bigger, so why did they make the dime the smallest coin? Someone, way back when, should have made the smallest coin the penny right? I do all sorts of fun activities that help my students learn to identify the coins and erase this confusion. Hopefully they will help your students too!
Baby Food Jar Magic:
I do my money activities as an extension of calendar time if I have the time, or right before story time in the afternoon if I run out of time in the morning.
At this age many of my students have younger siblings so it’s no problem finding a parent with a baby who can save 5-baby food jars for me. Besides the 5 jars you’ll also need 5 pennies, 2 nickel’s, 10 dimes and a one-dollar bill.
I keep my jars on two stacked wooden boxes next to my rocking chair. This is a “No Touch Zone.” The first jar is the penny jar, the second the nickel jar the 3rd the dime jar. Behind these three “daily jars” I keep the other two jars for storage of the “extra” coins. I keep the nickels and pennies in one of the extra jars and the dimes in the other.
As we say what day it is I drop a penny in the 1st jar. We count the pennies. If there are 5 pennies in the jar the students say: “Bing-bing-bing We get to do magic and change the penny into a different coin! 5 pennies makes a ______________. (nickel)” I take a nickel out of the “extra” jar and put it in the 2nd jar. If there is already a nickel in that jar, from previous days of counting, the children get to again say: “Bing-bing-bing!” We get to do magic and change the nickels into a different coin. 2 nickels makes a ____________________. (dime).” I put the nickels in the “extra” jar, take out a dime and put it in the 3rd jar. We count the dimes by 10’s (which reinforces that report card standard.) When we get to 100 that =’s a dollar.
I have told my students that I will go to The Dollar store and buy a treat to celebrate 100 Day and anyone who can count to 100 by 10’s will get a certificate. We’ll change the 10 dimes into a dollar on that day. My students LOVE doing this coin-jar activity each day. As they get the hang of it you can have students manipulate the coins instead of the teacher.
Show Me the Money!
This was a popular quote from a Tom Cruise movie Jerry McGuire. I made it into a game. I gather my students in a circle on our carpet and give them each a tiny manila envelope. Inside is a penny, nickel and dime.
I have them spill out their envelope in front of them so that they can see their coins. So that they get the coins into their heads we say penny-penny-penny and put our index finger on that coin.
I have them do the same for the nickel and then the dime. Now it’s time to “Show me the money!” I say: “Don’t look at what your friends are doing, pick up the penny.”
They pick up the penny, close it in their fist, put their outstretched arm in front of them with their fist palm-side up, waiting for me to say: “OK show me the money!” They then open their fist and I see who has a penny!
We correct who doesn’t and begin again using the nickel and dime. We play for about 2 to 3 minutes. When we’re done I have everyone put their penny in the envelope, then their nickel, then the dime; this ensures that I have 3 correct coins in all of the envelopes for the next time I want to play the game. I then collect the envelopes and put them in my little basket for another day. 
See and Sing:
I bought a poster of the coins, cut out the individual pictures, laminated them and use them in this song that goes to the tune of Brother John.
I hold up the picture in one hand and a real coin in the other when we sing it. I use the contraction (here's) for the first part and put in the whole word (here IS) for the second part, so the tune fits better. Sub in nickel, dime and quarter for the rest of the verses.
Here’s a penny, Here’s a penny
Worth one cent. Worth one cent
Here is a penny, Here is a penny
Worth one cent. Worth one cent.
Magic:
By far and away their favorite coin review is the disappearing coin magic trick.
It’s very easy, a child can do it, you don’t need any practice and you can do it the first time you read the directions. It’s one of my favorite tricks because I can review shapes as well as coins with it.
My students never get tired of seeing it week after week. Because I let them hold the various coins and ask them what coin they’d like to see disappear and reappear they get used to the names by saying the coin and putting it in the ring.
For example, I ask them how much a dime is worth and they say 10 cents. Pretty soon they know how to identify the coins as well as how much they are worth. The trick takes a minute and they are delighted. Their attention is riveted and they beg to see it every day. “Pick my penny! Pick my nickel!”
I also do another easy coin magic trick called Nickles to Dimes. This one is great because these two coins are the ones that they are always getting confused. I can reinforce that it is the nickel that is the larger coin and that the smaller coin is the dime. They are amazed that I can turn a nickel into a dime and want to see this trick over and over again. Click on the link to watch the 2 minute Video.
Play Money:
I have “Tummy Tubby Time” that my students transition to after they have completed their Table Top lessons. One of the tubs they enjoy is the play money tub. This is great for sorting the coins by color, size, and category.
I also challenge them to make all sorts of patterns with them: ABAB, ABCABC etc. Telling them that I want them to name the coins as they make the pattern penny-nickel-dime/penny-nickel-dime etc.
Also in the play money department I have a cash register in our Imagination Center. During February I’ll put price tags on about 15 things that we keep in a laundry basket. They will have a number on one side of the price tag (1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents etc.) and a sticker of a picture of a real coin on the other.
Students can purchase items out of the laundry basket and match up the coin amounts on the price tags with play money and then hand the play money to the cashier. I have several purses, wallets and coin pouches in the dress up box that the children enjoy keeping the coins in.
Table Top Lessons
Throughout the month of February I design my table top lessons using coins so that my students become familiar with how they look. At one of my centers they bingo dot pages with coins on them.
They stamp a group/set of things using coin stamps, and then they add their groups/sets of coin stamps to make equations; we play “I Spy” games using a penny, nickel and dime. I have them connect the dots with coin pictures and do "Pinch and Pokes" with coins. They also do cut and glue patterns and similarity and difference sheets with coins.
They also enjoy making coin rubbings with crayons. The coins become part of our word wall and they practice writing them. Click on the link to print/view a copy of a writing skill sheet that you can cut into strips and add to your word wall. I have my students TRACE the words with a highlighter and then write them.
I also like them to practice making circles so I have them trace around the coins as well. To get them familiar with the colors of the coins I have them color the penny copper and the rest of the coins silver.
I have a huge selection of the above skill sheets and center activities in my Money and President units As a math extension, we keep a tally sheet of how many times we tossed a head or a tail when we do the "penny flip" and then total our sheets and graph how many times we did it as a class; we also graph our favorite coin. Click on the link to view/print these graph sheets for your students.
We do two coin-related art projects in February. One involves making a money mobile which looks great dangling from the ceiling and serves as a daily review each time we walk by them. We also make a Lincoln penny balancing man. These fun projects can be found in my February Art & Activities Book. You can click on the link to see a picture of them.
Fun Booklets:
My students love making their own little booklets and then taking them home to share with their families. It’s a great way for me to overlap reading, writing and even math skills. It also enhances their fine motor and listening and following direction skills too. I do this during my reading block, but they are a great fill-in after story time, or nice to send home as a home-school connection.
Some of my students’ favorites that involve coins are: The Dollar Shapes Up, There Was A Penny In My Pocket, 10 Little Pennies, My Coin Counting Booklet. These make wonderful keepsakes and super self-esteem builders as they are easy to read. My favorite is The Dollar Shapes Up. Click on the link to print/view an easy reader booklet entitled My Coin Booklet
Games:
Coin Corner: This game is like 4 Corners only I call it 4 Coins. You put a large picture of a penny, nickel, dime and quarter in each one of your corners. I bought two sets of a coin poster at a teacher's store, laminated them, glued them back-to-back and hung them from the ceiling.
Choose a student to be "it"; have the rest of the students quickly and quietly walk to a coin corner while you cover the eyes of “it”. “It” and I count backwards from 10-0 (one of our report card standards).
When we get to 0 we yell “Freeze!” anyone not in a corner or moving is out and must come sit on the carpet with me. “It” calls out a coin-corner, anyone in that coin-corner is out, and comes sits on the carpet with me to help me count. That first “it” joins the game and I choose a new "it".
I encourage all of the children to look at the coin-corners as we identify them, to reinforce identification. We play this game at the end of the day if we have time before they go home.
What’s Missing?
My students sit in a circle on the carpet. I have 2 pennies, 2 nickels, 2 dimes, and 2 quarters. I put the coins down in a circle and we repeat the pattern together penny-nickel-dime-quarter, penny-nickel-dime-quarter. Then I have them squeeze their eyes tightly shut, I cover the coins with a sheet of paper, reach under the paper and take a coin out, put it in my hand, put my hand, behind my back, take the sheet of paper away, and say: “OK, open your eyes. What’s missing?”
My students figure out what coin is gone. The first child to guess gets a sticker, or whatever I decide I’m doing that day. If I’m giving out Skittles, Smarties or M&M’s, I give each child one for being a good sport after we have finished playing for the day.
Banker Who Took Your Coin?
This is just like Doggy Who Took Your Bone? My students sit on the carpet in a circle. One student sits on a chair in the middle of the circle. I place a coin that is taped to a heart and labeled with its name, under the chair.
The child in the chair closes their eyes. I point to a child to take the coin-heart. They put it behind their back.
Everyone puts their hands behind their back. I tell the child in the chair: “OK open your eyes.” The children say: “Banker-banker who took your coin?” The banker has 15 seconds to guess who took their coin.
Coin Pick Up Sort
While my students are out at recess/lunch I sprinkle coin cards all over the floor. I let them know when I pick my students up that there are cards all over the floor and that they must tip toe around them, until we are all seated on our carpet and I give them the signal to collect them.
While they are picking them up I want them to say: “I found a penny card, dime card etc.” After all of the cards are found I have them sort them into the various kinds of cards and then count their total cards.
I give a prize to the one who found the most penny cards, nickel cards, dime cards and total coin cards.
You can make your own cards by buying some coin stickers from a teacher's store. Buy a pack of index cards from The Dollar Store and cut them into 1/4ths and put a coin sticker on each card. You can also use these cards to make patterns, and for math equations. Put numbers and +, - and = signs on some of the cards and have students put the cards on the floor. i.e. a child places 5 picture cards on the floor and a + sign along with 2 picture cards and then an = sign and then the number card 7.
You could also have them use the picture cards to make coin conversions. i.e. 5 penny cards ='s a nickel picture card, 2 nickel cards ='s a dime card, 10 penny cards ='s a dime card etc.
Mystery Coin:
I have a ? flap on my board during the month of February labeled Mystery Coin. I’ll choose a quiet child during calendar time to take a guess at what they think the coin might be. Then I’ll have them lift the flap to see if they are correct. Underneath I’ll have a picture of either a penny, nickel, dime or quarter.
It’s just another fun way to get students to recognize a coin each day. Simply color the coins with crayons, cut them out and glue them to a piece of construction paper, print off the question mark page and glue it to a sheet of black construction paper.
Fasten it to your white board with a piece of scotch tape so that it acts like a hinge and students can flip the flap up to reveal the coin. I put a piece of magnet strip on the back of my coins after I laminate them. I also put a real coin next to the colored coin using a glue dot. Click on the link to make a mystery coin flip up.
Letter home to parents:
I get my parents on board by sending a letter home to them about our coin study so that they are working as a team with me reinforcing the lessons their child is learning at school. Click on the link to print/view the coin letter.
Certificate:
When my students can identify all of the coins I give them a certificate of accomplishment. After I finish assessing them, and they pass, I fill out their certificate, present it to them, and announce to the class that they've passed. Everyone claps for them.
They really look forward to this moment. Click on the link to view/print two different coin certificates.
I hope you’ve found these ideas helpful and that your students have fun learning how to identify coins!
As always if you have a tip you’d like to share, I’d enjoy hearing from you diane@teachwithme.com
