1-2-3 Come Do Some Money Activities With Me

President George Washington's picture is inside an oval shape on the one dollar bill, but wait; these dollar bills are wacky, as other 2D shapes have snuck in and taken over. They need some "shaping up!"

This emergent reader practices a variety of standards at the same time reviewing the circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle and hexagon shapes, with two size options.

Students trace and write the shape word; trace and draw the shape; circle the capital letters in the sentences; add end punctuation, then cut and glue the shapes to the matching pages of their booklet.

Use the booklet in February with your money and Presidents' Day activities, or in March during Seuss week, as a "Wacky Wednesday" activity.

For writing practice, I've included a Venn diagram comparing Washington's dollar bill with Lincoln's five dollar bill, as well as a "design your own" dollar bill writing prompt craftivity.

Completed projects make an interesting bulletin board.  

Since Dr. Seuss's birthday is coming up, I also designed a "Flipping Over Coins 'Cent-sational' Seuss" hat craftivity.   

Children color and cut on the dotted lines to make a "flap", that when flipped, will reveal the picture of the coins (penny, nickel, dime, quarter and half dollar) that they have colored, trimmed and glued underneath.

The packet includes a large, full-page hat, as well as a smaller, two on a page template.

To show an AB-AB color pattern, I have my students color every other strip the color of their choice. Many chose red because of Seuss's Cat in the Hat story.  

Finally, My Buck Booklet, is a quick, easy and fun way to practice a variety of standards, including coin identification, and how many ways you can make a dollar.

Students trace and write words, then color, cut and glue the matching coin to the appropriate box in their booklet.

I've also included practice for skip counting by 5s & 10s, plus there's an optional last page to mix math & literacy, as I've included 2 fun writing prompts.

This is an interesting activity for table top, homework, or a sub folder, and plugs in nicely for Presidents' Day too. 

Today's featured FREEBIE is a "coin sort" craftivity. It practices the concept of small-medium & large, which will help students with coin identification.  

Completed projects make a nice bulletin board too. 

Well that's it for today. We've got family coming in from Colorado this morning, so I better finish my cleaning!  

Wishing you a wonderful weekend. 

"Wealth is the ability to fully experience life." - Henry David Thoreau

1-2-3 Come Do Some 100 Day Money Activities With Me

For those of you who haven't celebrated 100 Day yet, the "Making Cents on 100 Day"  packet includes some different and interesting activities for your celebration, that involve money.

Even tho' I designed the packet to go along with my 100 Day activities, they easily fit your lessons about coins, and would be appropriate anytime.

The activities are simple enough for kinders, but can be challenging enough for older kiddos as well.  Simply pick which activities are most appropriate then "print & go".

The packet reinforces addition, counting, data analysis, comparison, greater & less than, coin identification, graphing, & tally marks.

Students work independently on their worksheets, or can partner up to complete one as well.

I've also included a writing prompt that relates, plus some "funny money" and a "We're 100 Days Smarter!" poster for your bulletin board display.

The "Building Vocabulary With Dollar & 100 Dollar Words" is also a super-fun, money-themed activity appropriate for 100 Day or any other time.

I did a ton of work on this packet to make it easy-peasy for you! 
The Dollar Word packet reinforces addition, critical thinking, strategy, cooperative learning, counting, plus greater & less than.

There are also teachable moments for reviewing prefixes, suffixes, plurals & parts of speech, as part of the strategy of finding a dollar word.
Keep things simple for younger students, raise the bar and include more for older kiddos.

Using calculators for checking, provides added practice and enables younger students to take part in these activities.

Dollar words are great anytime for building vocabulary and practicing math skills, as well as an interesting Daily-5 word work activity.

Because words are worth 100 points (pennies for dollar words, or dollars, for one hundred dollar words) it’s perfect for your 100-Day celebration too.

Each letter is given a point value.  Introduce the lesson by having students find out the value of their name. (A worksheet is provided).
Afterwards, challenge students to try and find words whose total equals 100.

Beforehand, discuss some strategy: Can you make it plural to gain easy, additional points? How ‘bout a prefix or suffix?
Have students keep track of their efforts, so even if they don’t find a dollar word, they can share the word with their highest total.

Students can work individually, with a partner, or in small groups.
I’ve included cute, one and one hundred dollar bill templates for children to record their dollar word on.

They can draw a picture of themselves or glue on a photo to the front. Run these off on light green paper. Students fold over & glue together. 
There’s a balloon option, with 2 sizes as well.

The packet also includes an alphabetical list of 740 “dollar” words; a dollar word dictionary for students to record their results; worksheets; 60, dollar word clue cards for playing a Dollar Word riddle game, with an answer key, and 2 recording sheets; as well as a letter value bookmark, plus mini-certificates of praise. 

Today's featured FREEBIE is a sweet "Shapely Snow Angel"  packet that includes an emergent reader, craftivity, plus graphing extentions that reinforce 2D shapes. I hope you find it useful.  

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by. 

The wind is howling outside my window, so it's time to toss another log on the fire and grab a cup of tea. Wishing you a warm and cozy day.

"I say to myself that I shall try to make my life like an open fireplace, so that people may be warmed and cheered by it and so go out themselves to warm and cheer." - George Matthew Adams

1-2-3 Come Do A Few More Coin Activities With Me!

I had quite a few requests for some specific coin-related lessons, so I made time to get these designed, as I think many others will find them helpful as well.

The ever-popular 10 frames packet collection, has really grown!  I think I've covered all of the monthly themes, but am happy to make others. 

Karissa, from California, says she has collected them all, and wondered if I could make some with coins on them for her kinders.  

I've included 10 frames for pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, plus extra tiles of each, so you can run off and use them as manipulatives.  Using real pennies would also be fun for your kiddos.  Click on the link to view/download the 10 Frames Coin Packet.

Connie, in Delaware, teaches preschool and wondered if I had any coin games?  I liked to use dice to help my Y5's  subitize, (Quickly identify how many in a group, without having to count.) so I designed the Coins On A Roll dice game. 

Simply run off the coin bookmarks.  Students pick a partner and take turns rolling the dice.  If they roll a one they color in the penny.  If they roll a two, they color in the second coin, which is a nickel and so on.   However, if someone rolls a six, they lose their turn. 

The first child who colors in all of the coins on ther bookmark is the winner.  This game also provides a teachable moment to review ordinal numbers as well.   Click on the link to view/download the Coins On A Roll dice game.

Quite a few teachers asked if I could make some worksheets involving coins.  Many of them were required to send homework home and several needed something for early finishers to do. 

These are also great for Daily 5 word work or a sub folder.  Click on the link to view/download the 10-page Coin Worksheet packet.

I also had several homeschooling moms and teachers who were looking for some crafts with a coin theme, so I  re-designed the coin dangler. 

My Y5's enjoyed making the "Money Matters Mobiles."  They looked wonderful swirling and twirling from our hallway ceiling. 

They're also an easy way to review sizes (small-medium and large) as well as the circle shape, and provide great cutting practice too. 

I opted to add the paper dollar to the top and cut out my students' school picture, so they could glue it over Washington's face. 

My report card standards only required my Y5's to know the penny, nickel, dime and quarter, but I've also included templates for the half dollar and dollar coins as well.  Click on the link to view/download the Money Matters Coin Dangler craftivity.

Finally, Connie, from Oregon, really liked the Olympics flip for facts file folder activity, that was included in the Olympic writing packet and asked if I had one for coins.  I thought this was a wonderful idea, so I got right to it. 

File folder facts are a simple and effective way to introduce research to early elementary students.  Children search for interesting facts Online, choose their favorites, and then put them into their own words. 

As with the Olympic file folder, I've also included several pages of how to explain citations to your kiddos and provide links too. 

The Flip For Facts File Folders are a nice pre-cursor to writing a report.  Click on the link to view/download the Coin Flip For Facts File Folder Packet.

Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN away.  As always, if you too have something you're looking for, simply drop me an e-mail at: diane@teachwithme.com and I'll see what I can do.  

 "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education!" -Mark Twain

2 pages.

Help reinforce coin identification with this quick, easy and fun dice game. Students choose a partner and take turns rolling the dice. If they roll a one they color the penny; if they roll a two they color the second coin (the nickel) and so on.  However, if they roll a six they lose their turn.  The first one to color all of the coins on their bookmark is the winner.  This is also a nice opportunity to review ordinal numbers as well.

16 pages.

A file folder flip for facts activity, is a nice introduction to doing research, finding facts and putting them in your own words. It's a great precursor to doing a report and is simple enough for kinders to do.

10 pages.

Help your students learn to identify the fronts and backs of coins by making this mobile.  Also includes coin templates for the half dollar and dollar.  You can include the paper dollar at the top with a student's photo over George Washington's, or leave it at just a penny, nickel, dime and quarter coin dangler. 

10 pages.

Students practice counting by 1's, counting backwards from 10 to 1 and skip counting by 10's to 100, with these 10-piece puzzles, that will help them learn to identify various US coins.

1-2-3 Come Do Some Coin Activities With Me

Since our money features US Presidents, and Presidents Day is in February, I started our study of coins during this time.  Our week of President-themed activities, particularly Washington and Lincoln, made them aware of these famous individuals, so they could then recognize them on our currency.

Being able to identify coins and their value, was one of my Y5's report card standards.  This was not all that easy for some of my kiddos.  I think one of the reasons things were confusing, is that they felt the nickel should be worth more than a dime, simply because it was larger.

I found that the best way to help my students identify coins, was to plan a variety of activities that immersed them in hands-on activities.

Through discovering and explaining the differences when they "played" with the coins, (sorting by size and color; making patterns, flipping them and making tally marks, playing games, singing songs, as well as making crafts) the light bulb eventually came on.

To help my students with recognition, I designed a set of coin posters that show the front and back of the coin as well as how much they are worth.  Print them off and mount them on construction paper and then laminate.  Gluing a real coin to the posters is also helpful.

I've included several pages of coin conversion worksheets, as well as a template of each coin, so that you can run off manipulatives for your students.

Another set of anchor charts are the Coin Poster Poems .  My students quickly learned the chants with just a few repetitions. 

These really helped them remember the value of the coins. Click on the link to view/download the Coin Poster Poems

Making a Venn diagram is also a quick, easy and fun way for students to compare coins. I've made one for each type of combination for a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar.  Click on the link to view/download the coin Venn diagram packet.

To be able to use size as a comparison, I had my students make the small-medium and large "sorting coins" craftivity.

Another way for them to see size differences was by making a Coin Flip Booklet. 

Each month my Y5's enjoyed making a flip booklet of some sort.  I think it was the secretive and surprise element of discovering something hidden under a flap that they found intriguing. 

The Coin Flip Booklet, helped them see the size differences of the coins as they colored, cut and glued them to the front, arranging them from smallest to largest.

We'd discuss the other attributes of the coins , jot the answers on the board, and then students would write these facts underneath the appropriate flap, referring to the board for spelling help.  

I also wanted to review tally marks as an easy way for children to practice the value of the coins.  To help my kiddos remember how to make tally marks, I made a visual for them and hung it on our white board. 

Using glue dots, I glued 4 Popsicle sticks of one color on a sheet of construction paper, numbered them and then crossed the 5^th one over using a different color stick.  I demonstrated this in front of them and then left the poster up.

The coin "flip" book activity, was an excellent segue to flipping a coin and keeping track via tally marks, so once again, I'd refer to the Popsicle stick tally mark poster. 

Students chose a partner and flipped a penny as many times as they could for 30-seconds, making tally marks each time they flipped heads, and each time they flipped tails, then we'd review our results.

Click on the link to view/download the "It makes 'cents' to _________ " Coin Flip Booklet.

I also used Popsicle sticks to make coin "puppet paddles."  I find that students learn so much better with manipulatives, all the more if they make their own, because they are reinforcing concepts as they put their projects together. 

Not only will your kiddos enjoy making their coin paddles, they'll have fun playing the "What am I?" coin game.  It's interesting for them, and a quick and easy way for you to whole-group assess as well. 

Run off the coin templates on white construction paper.  Students color, cut and glue their paper coins to the top of a Popsicle stick.  Have them glue the penny and nickel back-to-back and the dime and quarter back-to-back. 

The photo shows the front as well as the back of the coin sticks.  This way you can review all 4 coins, but your students only have to manipulate 2 paddles. 

I made a set with real coins for me to use, so that students were able to see the real coins as we played the game.  I used 4 different Popsicle sticks.

After I gave the clues, I would hold up the appropriate coin paddle and ask: "Do you have the penny paddle showing?" so that students could self-correct before moving on to the next coin.

I've included a page of clues that you read one at a time.  When students think they have identified the coin, they raise their coin paddle, so that the correct coin faces the teacher.

As the teacher continues to read the clues, students can change their mind one time, but not after the teacher reads: "What am I?"  With just a glance, you can see who has the correct answer.  Play continues 'til you have given all of the coin clues.   

Have students keep their coin sticks in their desks/cubbies, so that you can play the game daily/weekly. When the novelty has worn off, or when students can identify the coins they can take them home.

You can also use the coin paddles to help students with spatial directions.  i.e. "Hold the penny paddle in your left hand. Show me the quarter stick in your right hand. Put the dime beside the nickel etc."

Likewise, you can review body parts and have children put the penny on their thigh, the nickel on their wrist, the dime on their hip etc.  Click on the link to view/download the Coin Popsicle Stick Puppets. 

Finally, once your students can identify all of the coins, reward them with a certificate of praise.  Click on the link to grab it.

Thanks for visiting today.  Be sure and stop back tomorrow for lots  more coin FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN away.

"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count, but the life in your years." -Abraham Lincoln

8 pages.

If you're studying money right now, why not have students learn a bit about Chinese currency, so they can compare and contrast it with ours.  Packet includes 2 Venn diagrams, plus a link to a site where students can type in US dollars and have it converted to Chinese yuan. 

1-2-3 Come Do Some More Chinese New Year Activities With Me

Chinese New Year starts the 31st, but you have plenty of time to plug in some cultural social studies, as the festivities run for 15 days, ending on Valentines Day this year. 

Why not teach your kiddos how to count to 10 in Chinese? To help you, I designed some Chinese and English number cards, so children can play Memory Match and "I Have; Who Has?" games. 

The packet also includes an anchor chart that shows the order of "brush" strokes, as well as helpful links so students can see and hear the numbers. 

One of the sites tells you how to ask a person their phone number in Chinese. 

I thought that would be a really fun activity for students, so I made a recording sheet.  There's also one for students to write their age on. 

Introduce these lessons by reading a Chinese counting book.  I've included 3 suggestions. 

Click on the link to view/download the Let's Count In Chinese,Number Card Packet. 

If you're studying money right now, it would be interesting for your students to compare US currency with China's.  The renminbi (RMB)  (pronounced like the letters) is their official currency.

You may also have heard of the yuan, (pronounced you-en) which is the basic unit of the renminbi, but is also used as a synonym for China's currency, especially in international contexts, sort of like England's Brittish Sterling and the pound.

Since currency rates change daily, click on the link to visit the China Tour site; here students can type in a US dollar amount and have it converted to Chinese yuan. 

Currently, the Chinese yuan is worth .15 cents in US money, and 100 US dollars is 664.0 yuan.  I've made up a Chinese Currency packet that you'll find helpful.  

It includes 2 Venn diagrams, so students can compare and contrast Chinese currency with ours.

I've also included some templates for their paper money.  It's a Chinese tradition to give money to children during Chinese New Year. 

They place it in red envelopes for good luck.   You could print some of this money off and include it inside a red envelope for your students.

Most office supply stores sell red envelopes, and after Christmas they go on sale 50% off.  As with the 100 dollar bill for 100-Day, you could substitute your students' photo on the money. 

Use them as "behavior bucks" where students earn them throughout the day, as they accomplish various tasks, and then "convert" them for a priviledge or trip to your treasure box.  Click on the link to view/download the Chinese Currency Packet.

Also math related, are these 9 Chinese puzzles that will help your students practice counting forwards, backwards and by 10's.

I'm thrilled to add another graphics artist to our activities.  Along with Laura Strickland and DJ Inkers, you'll be seeing the adorable work from Scrappin Doodles.  Click on the link to view/download the Chinese New Year puzzle packet.

Finally, I designed some incentives or prizes that you can make and give to your students, to add to the excitement of your Chinese New Year celebration.  

Purchase a pack of sparkly pencils at The Dollar store, print off these toppers, trim, cut slits and insert the pencil. 

Challenge students to collect all three designs as they accomplish tasks, or play games. The Chinese symbols on the 1st one say "Happy New Year."  The teapot says: U R T rific! and the dragon says Happy Chinese New Year.

Click on the link to view/download the Chinese New Year Pencil Topper Packet.

Another inexpensive treat that you can give your kiddos, is a lollipop note.  There are 5 designs to choose from.  Print them off, cut slits and insert a lollipop. My personal favorite is the fan, which says, "I hope your New Year is fantastic."

Because of Valentines Day, The Dollar Store is carrying red heart lollipops, perfect for Chinese New Year too, because red is such an important color in China.   Click on the link to view/download the Chinese New Year Lollipop Notes. 

Last, but not least, I always enjoyed making treat bags for my Y5's.  This can be your snack, an incentive, or prize.  There are 5 headers to choose from.

I've photographed the treats that I put in mine.  Click on the link to view/download the Chinese New Year Treat Bag Headers.

Thanks for visiting today.  I have lots more to share, so I hope you can pop by tomorrow.  I'll be finishing up with some adorable crafty Chinese New Year FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN away.

"One joy scatters a hundred griefs." -Chinese Proverb