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 Coin Activities With Me

Today's blog features some of my favorite coin activities, which will help your students learn to identify the penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar. 

Use them for your coin studies, or plug them in with your Presidents' Day lessons.

In the Poster & Game Packet,  I’ve included pocket chart cards, flashcards, strip puzzles, large posters showing both the front and back of the coin, plus “How Many?” posters, which show how many pennies make up each coin.

There are also cards to play Memory Match and “I Have; Who Has?” games, as well as several “I Spy a Coin!” whole-group game sheets, which can be used as an assessment too.

I've included smaller versions of the posters, plus a bookmark, that students can keep in their math journals to use as a reference tool, plus  a certificate of praise for 4 as well as 6 coins, with two size options.  

Another way to quickly and easily reinforce coins is with the "Coins On A Roll"  Dice Game Bookmark packet.  

You can explain the directions, or hang up the rebus poster.
Afterwards, they have a nice bookmark to keep in their math journals.  

I truly believe that when children really take a look at the various coins, checking out similarities and differences, that they will latch on to information that helps them remember which coin is which.

A visually fun way to do that, at the same time getting in some comparison-contrast writing, is with a Venn diagram.

Children can work independently, with a partner or in small groups to analyze and evaluate each coin using the various Venn diagram worksheets.

For younger students, do this as a whole group activity, where they come up with the answers and you jot them on the worksheet. 

The 45, "Fix The Sentence" cards, are also an interesting way to review coins, and practice reading, as the cards are packed with  Dolch sight words.

They are a quick, easy and fun way to review all sorts of facts about US coins, which will help students differentiate, so that they can remember which coin is which. 

At the same time students are practicing end punctuation and capitalization, along with a few math concepts.

There are a variety of sentences that need a period, exclamation point or question mark.
Proper nouns, as well as the first word, need to be capitalized as well. Have students use a dry erase marker to make corrections.

After you read and correct the sentences as a whole group, have children choose X number of mini cards to fix independently, by writing the sentences correctly.  

Finally, I designed Lincoln's Log Cabin.  It features a brand new, shiny penny to help reinforce the fact that Lincoln's face is on that coin. 

Older students can practice skip counting by 5s or 10s (the logs are numbered), while PK kiddos use the logs that are numbered 1-10.

I’ve also included 4 worksheets, as well as 2 writing prompts, along with blank templates so you can mix math with literacy.

Assign a prompt, give students a choice, or have them make up their own, gluing their completed worksheet to the back of Lincoln’s log cabin.

For a nice hallway display, punch a hole at the top and suspend from the ceiling. 

Today's FREEBIE is a set of "I Spy" a letter worksheets, featuring Abe Lincoln and uppercase letters, as well as George Washington and lowercase letters.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you found something useful here to help enhance your study of coins and Presidents.

"Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will." -Nelson Mandela

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

Yesterday's "Let's Do Something With Those Valentines!"  Math & Literacy activities, were such a huge it, that I decided to make a few more worksheets where students use their valentines.  These have to do with measuring.     

Because my kiddos rip through their valentine cards and are done in about 5 minutes, when I really wanted that activity to last longer, I designed these quick, easy and fun worksheets to extend my sanity-time on party day.

There are 2 worksheets children complete using their valentine cards.  They are independent activities, as well as one where they partner up.

Choose just one worksheet, or print both back-to-back.

Children will enjoy playing with their valentines longer, as they practice a variety of non-standard units of measurement, while you grab a few stress-free moments to relax before the next activity.

Another "print & go" activity is the Valentines For Sale emergent reader, which practices a variety of standards.

Children read the simple sentences filled with 37 Dolch sight words, trace and write the color, number and coin words, color the valentine hearts the appropriate colors, then cut and glue the matching coins to the boxes.

This quick, easy and fun activity is perfect for party day. 

Today's featured FREEBIE is "Lovie".  She's a fish made from heart shapes.  This craft is a simple and fun way to show small-medium-large and explain symmetry.  

Use it as a valentine craft for party day and give children some Fishy crackers to "o-fish-cially" wish them a happy Valentine's Day. 

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

February is so packed full of special celebrations and themes that my mind's on hyper-drive.  Wishing you a happy-go-lucky day.

"If you can believe it, Hollywood wanted to change my birthdate. I was born after Valentine's Day, so they wanted to change it to February 14. A Latin lover should be born on Valentine's Day. I said no." - Cesar Romero

1-2-3 Come Study Coins With Me

I'm always looking for quick, easy and fun ways to study the various standards and still include my theme. 

With that in mind, I designed this Christmas tree craft, that's decorated with coins. (penny, nickel, dime & quarter).

Run the tree template off on green construction paper, or use white and have students color.
Children pick a partner and take turns rolling the dice four times.

Their 1st roll equals how many penny ornaments they will glue to their tree, the 2nd roll is for nickels and so on.

Students color, cut and glue the matching number of coins to their tree.
This way, each tree will be trimmed differently.

After they are done “decorating” their tree, older students complete their math worksheet by adding up the total value of their tree, writing that on the star or trunk.

I’ve also provided a worksheet where students break down the total of each coin.

For more advanced math practice, have everyone share their total, write them on the board, and figure out how much all of the trees are worth.

Also included, are several worksheet options for different levels of study, including one that reinforces color words.  The photographs of completed samples help clarify things.

Completed projects make an awesome bulletin board too. Caption: "Cent-sational Math Work".  

Click on the link to zip over to my TpT shop to have a look: Christmas Money Tree

The other money activity that goes hand-in-hand with this one, is my "Christmas Cookie Dough" packet. 

The packet includes an emergent reader, with several options for you to choose from, including 2 sizes.

The first one is a “cut & glue” the appropriate coin to the page, the other version already features a picture of the coin.

Students read the simple sentences, filled with 20 Dolch sight words. I’ve switched up the pronouns for that teachable moment as well.

They trace & write the coin words, as well as the values, and color words, then color the cookies accordingly.

I’ve also included a “Sum Cookies” craftivity, which makes an awesome interactive bulletin board, or wall display.

Children choose which cookies they want, then color, cut and arrange them on their aluminum foil “cookie sheet”. When they are satisfied with how things look, they glue their cookies down.

Using the “cookie key” or referring to the pocket chart cards, students figure out the price of all of the cookies on their cookie sheet, writing an equation showing the price of each cookie, then adding to solve the problem.

I’ve included a spatula to show their work, which is attached to their cookie sheet.
When everyone is done, collect and number the cookie sheets, then display them, along with the spatula answers.

For more math practice have children figure out how much the various sheets of cookies cost, writing their equations and solutions on the worksheet.

Students can do one a day, or however many you want them to do. They check their work, by flipping up the spatula flap.

Finally, there’s a cookie matching game. Depending on ability, students simply match a cookie to a cookie.

Older kiddos can match a cookie with its value, to the matching coin card, and/or the coin word card.

There’s also a certificate of praise as well: “When it comes to coins, you’re one smart cookie!” 

Today's FREEBIE also features coin identification.   It's a set of poster-poems. I hope you find them useful.

Well that's it for today. All this talk of cookies, brought on the cravings. 

Time to grab a mug of milk and dunk my favorite--chocolate chip . . .  Wishing you a delicious December.

"Never spend your money before you have earned it." -Thomas Jefferson

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.

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

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

Because Presidents' Day is in February, and presidents are often featured on our currency, I taught a themed-unit on money at this time.   Identifying coins and knowing their values, was a Y5 report card standard. 

Our 100-Day also fell in February, so I liked to give my students some 100-Day coin ativities, to practice and reinforce the monetary concepts I was trying to teach them.

With that in mind, I just completed a "Making Cents On 100 Day" packet. (Play on the word sense intended.)  There's a fun variety of different activities included.

I revamped my Y5's personal favorite, which was "earning" 100 dollar bills with their picture on them. 

As a motivational incentive, I showed them the play money I had run off on light green paper.  I've included a template in the Making Cents packet, so you can make some for your kiddo's too.  Trust me, they will get very excited over this!

My Y5's earned bills through out the day for completing tasks, winning/participating in timed-tasks etc.  At the end of the day, students could trade one of their bills for one of their friends. 

Hopefully they had earned enough of their own, to collect one from each classmate.  I never had a child who hadn't earned enough, as my Y5's really enjoyed our 100-Day activities. Everyone stayed focused and on-task. 

I also scattered a class set, on our 100-Day bulletin board that said: You Can Bank On Mrs. Henderson's Y5's Being 100 Days Smarter!  I made some bills with my own photograph as well.  Children could add a cover and staple their bills into a little booklet if they wanted to.  Some preferred to take them home loose.

They could also earn a 100 Dollar Bill bookmark.  Challenge students to earn 10 different stickers throughout the day, that they can put on the back of their "Ben Bill" and then count by 10's to 100. 

Besides these items, the packet also includes a variety of interesting worksheets, where students trace and write the coin words, tell their values, and figure out an assortment of  "how many?" problems. 

Children get some scissor fine-motor practice in, by cutting and gluing the matching pictures to the appropriate pages. 

There are also several worksheets for skip counting the coins, as well as measuring stacks and lines of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.

Finally, there's a 100-Day writing prompt included in the packet as well.

On the one-hundred dollar bill worksheet, students complete the prompt: "If I had 100, one-hundred dollar bills, I would have  _______________ dollars!  If I had that much money I would . . ." and ends with: How many one-hundred dollar bills would you need to make 100,000 dollars?

Click on the link to view/download the Making Cents On 100 Day packet. Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away. 

"We've all been counting one-by-one; Hurrah! Hurrah!  We've all been counting, oh what fun;  Hurray! Hurrah!
We've all been counting one-by-one,  and now 100 days are done, so we all go marching up, and down, and all around. 
Boom, boom, boom."

1-2-3 Come Do Some More  "Fun-tastic" 100 Day Activities With Me

Terri teaches 3-year-old preschool in Oklahoma, and asked if I could make a 100 Day coloring page for her kiddo's.  I put two on a page to conserve paper.  Older students could fill up the numbers with groups of 5 or 10 things to add up to 100. (Dots, X's, stickers, etc.) Click on the link to view/download the 100 Day coloring page.

Carleen, in Illinois, requested an easy 100 Day crown for her kinders. If you didn't see the 100 Day crown that incorporated 100 shapes (click on the link to grab it.) In the 100-Day Crown packet, I've included 3 simpler crowns.

Since quite a few people celebrate 100 Day in February, I designed a heart-shaped crown.  Run off on a variety of colors of construction paper.  Students trim.  Using 10 different colored markers, children make 10 groups of 10 dots, inside the 100 number; trim and glue to the center of the heart. 

Staple the heart to a sentence strip or bulletin board boarder to make an easy 100 Day crown. If your kiddo's are in PK, you can skip the counting by 10's to 100 dot portion, and simply have them color the number. 

100 Rocks! is another easy crown to make.  Since it has 5 balls on the top of the points, have students make twenty groups of 5 dots inside the crown, and then skip count to 100 by 5's.  I grouped my dots to look like the 5 on a dice pattern.  Run off on construction paper, trim and glue or staple to a paper headband.

My personal favorite, is the "circle-jeweled" crown.  There are 104 circles on the crown. I purposely did not make 100, as I discovered that no matter what "guessing" activity I gave my Y5's, they were always guessing the number 100, simply because it was 100 Day. 

I've included a guess-timation page, where students write down how many circles they think are on the crown and then compare their answer to the correct one.  This is a nice review of the math terms greater than, less than and equal to. 

Buy a pack of 475 Avery mini-colored dot-stickers for less than $2, and have your kiddo's get some fine motor practice in, while they peel and press the dots on the circles of their crown.  Flat-backed rhinestones are also fun, and add that finishing touch.  Click on the link to view/download the 100 Day Crown packet.

Since the back-to-school banners were so popular this fall, I decided to dream up 2 for your 100 Day celebration.  One of the "craftivities" that my Y5's really enjoyed doing, was drawing a picture of how they would look if they lived to be 100. 

Before hand, we discussed how a person ages, and things that were typical of the aging process.  i.e. hair turning gray and white, wrinkles, sagging skin, the need to wear glasses etc. I reminded them of what "granny" had looked like the day before.

On the 99th Day of school, my 100-year-old granny came to school and read them a few 100 Day books. 

This was really me dressed up to the hilt to look like an old woman for story time.  Click on the link to check out the details of this fun activity.  

After our aging discussion, I gave my kiddo's a construction paper oval and they drew in their details. When they were done, they ran their portrait through the "cruncher muncher."

This is a roller tool that crinkles paper to look like corrugated cardboard.  The result was a nice "wrinkled" appearance which you can see in the sample photo.  The completed pictures made an adorable 100 Day bulletin board. 

This year I thought it would be fun to make the self-portraits smaller and have students draw themselves inside an oval.  When they are done, they choose a colored pennant and glue their photo in place. 

Punch holes on either side of the pennants and tie together with yarn.  Hang as a border on a hallway wall, or suspend from your ceiling. 

I've included templates for the first and last pennants, as well as one for the boys, plus one for the girls.   Make sure to make one of yourself. Click on the link to view/download the Oldies One Hundred Day Banner.

If you're a tech type of person, you may want to download an aging app.  After over an hour of research, I found that the 2 best apps that will age a photo, are Oldify and Aging Booth.  Both have been given 4 to 5 stars depending on the review page you're on; and both cost .99 cents.

Since there were more positive reviews about Oldify, I downloaded that.  It has the added bonus of being able to record your voice.  The eyes blink, the mouth moves and your photo appears a bit "real".  

Make sure you "play" around with whatever you decide, as I didn't find Oldify all that easy to figure out.  You can always Google the app on YouTube, as I did find several tutorials over there. 

There are quite a few free "age me" apps, but "you get what you pay for" seems to ring pretty true here.  Instead of, or in addition to, having students draw themselves at the ripe old age of 100, you can take a head shot of each of your students, age them with the app and then print them off. 

I'm sure they'll find this loads of fun.  If you have a Smart Board, you could demonstrate the process and then have students create their own. These would look awesome on the Oldies Banner.

A simpler banner, involves reinforcement holes. Since they are pretty inexpensive, (you can buy a pack of 924 for less than $2) I liked to use them quite a bit with my Y5's.  Peeling and pressing them on something, was great fine motor skill practice. 

With that in mind, I designed the "reinforce 100" with a 100 Day's Smarter banner, as well as the 100-Day Snowman craftivity.  Click on the links to check them out. 

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN away.  My "Pin it!" button is on the menu bar.

"We'll start our day with a great big grin; because our 100 Day celebration, is about to begin!"

1-2-3 Come Do Some Pumpkin Stuff With Me!

Our pumpkin theme was one of my Y5's favorites.  We especially enjoyed all of the fabulous pumpkin books available.  I'd always introduce a theme with a selection of interesting books, many of which, my little ones asked to have read over and over again.  Click on the link for a copy of my October bibliography. 

Songs were also a special part of our day and a great way to get the wiggles out.  

One of our favorites was Pumpkin Round and Fat.  I have a huge collection of puppets that made reading and lessons extra special, so I often helped my kiddo's make a puppet-manipulative of their own. 

When I Googled this poem, to get some ideas, I found a sweet Popsicle puppet idea over at Teacher Mama.  This is my version: Click on the link to view/download the Jack-O-Lantern Popsicle stick puppet. 

I've had several requests for some coin activities involving pumpkins, so I dreamed up an easy-reader entitled, Pumpkin Payment.  Besides reinforcing the penny, nickel, dime and quarter, it also reviews all of the basic 2D shapes kiddo's are required to know, including that crazy hexagon.

Children trace and write the coin words, coin values, as well as the shape words.  They trace the shape and then draw one of their own on the pumpkin.  Finally, they cut and glue the appropriate coin(s) to the matching numbered boxes. 

When everyone has completed their booklet, read it as a whole group to reinforce concepts of print.  Click on the link to view/download the easy-reader booklet, Pumpkin Payment.

For more math extensions, with a 10-frame format, I think your students will enjoy 1-2-3 Count Pumpkins With Me.  

• Students read, trace and write the number and number word. 
• They see a "thing" in a sentence and say it. 
• They spy the number in a sequence and circle it.
• They X-out that many boxes or use a bingo dot marker or stamp. 
• They cut and glue the set/group to the matching numbered box. 

Another quick booklet, that would work well for a Daily 5 activity is the easy-reader Pumpkin On A Vine.  Students read, trace and write the simple sentences and then cut & glue the pictures to the matching numbered boxes.

Finally, Let's Count Pumpkins  covers quite a few Common Core State Standards which includes an easy reader where students read, trace and write the numbers, + circle them in a sequence. 

Children circle capital letters, add end punctuation to the simple sentences, + count the pumpkins in the group/set and color the puffy numbers as well.

This pumpkin math packet also includes trace and write worksheets for counting from 0 to 120, + skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's. There are 2 sets of pumkin number cards to use for sequencing, games, and making equations using the matching math symbol cards.  

You can practice counting forwards and backwards with the pumpkin bookmark that is also included in the packet.  Use this as a whole-group assessment tool too. 

Give each child a bookmark and a candy pumpkin.  Students trace the numbers.  Teacher calls out a number and students put their pumpkin on that number.   You can tell at a glance who is struggling and make a note of it.  As a special treat, students can eat their candy pumpkin when the lesson is over.   Click on the link to view/download the Let's Count Pumpkins math packet. 

Thanks for visiting today.  I design and try to blog daily, so I hope you can stop by tomorrow for even more FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN anything from my site.  I think sharing truly makes all of our lives easier.  To take a look at all of the helpful educational items that I PIN click on the heart button to the right of the blog.

"Knowledge and understanding are ife's faithful companions who will never be untrue to you.  For knowledge is your crown and understanding your staff, and when they are with you, you can possess no greater treasures."  -Kahlil Gibran

Leap Day Coin Game: Let's Leap To 29

To coincide with their studies of Lincoln and Washington, many teachers start their intense study of coins in February,  so I thought it would be fun to make up a game for Leap Day, using pennies, nickels, dimes and a quarter, to help review those coins.

I find that the more times you can immerse children in hands-on activities, that involve the concepts you’re trying to teach them, the better chance you have of having the perverbial lightbulb go on, as they latch on to something that will help them differenciate the coins.

What better way to do that than by playing a game!

Since Leap Day falls on the 29^th and I’m trying to get that fact stuck into my students’ heads, as well as the fact that this is an extra day, since February usually has only 28 days, I made the game Leap To .29 Cents.

I also want students to try and figure out what their best chances are of reaching 29 the quickest will be, depending on the column of coins they choose.

A discussion about strategy can follow of whether column choice matters and why.

I’ve also provided a graph to see which column won the game the most to see if it really did make a difference.

Students choose a partner and take turns spinning the coin spinner.

Whatever coin their paperclip lands on they color in that coin.

If they have already colored in those coins it becomes their partner’s turn.

Play continues ‘til the timer rings.

If someone has not reached 29, the student who is closest to 29 is the winner.

I hope this gives you another idea for your bag of tricks for Leap Day.

Click on the link to view/download Leap Day Coin Game, Leapin’ to 29.

Scroll down for my post from yesterday and the Leap Day Leapin’ Animals booklet and be sure and pop back tomorrow for more Leap Day activities.