Prior to actually engaging in the structured activities found in this six-lesson unit, young children will require opportunities to establish a basic familiarity with coins by incorporating their use into unstructured play. In the unit lessons, children explore the relationships among pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. For the first lesson, each child is given a plastic bag with 24 pennies and three dimes. Working in pairs, the children model the amounts of money Alexander spends in the story Alexander Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday.
Later lessons feature activities that can be modified for preschoolers. Embedded in the lessons are useful suggestions for making coin rubbings, removing tarnish with vinegar, etc. In addition to using coins to model amounts of money and to solve simple addition and subtraction problems, the children count sets of mixed coins, create story problems that involve money, and use coins to make patterns. Readings from children's books involving money enhance each lesson. Cross-curricular connections to art, science, and social studies are also provided. Activity sheets, Internet extensions, discussion questions, suggestions for assessment, and reflection questions for the teacher are included with this resource. (author/sw/jrs)
Number, Number Sense and Operations for Early Childhood
Number and Number Sense
12.
Identify penny, nickel, dime and quarter and recognize that coins have different values.