Counting Coins {Day Before Spring Break Version!}

The day before Spring Break is always fun…right!? This week, I decided that I had to come up with something creative to keep my kids' attention. Friday morning, our last day before Spring Break, was pretty rough. I knew I had to be on my toes when the kids returned from lunch if I had any chance of making it through the afternoon!!!

I had prepared a whole basket of plastic eggs filled with play coins. (Probably would have had them EVEN MORE engaged if they were they real thing, LOL!) 

When we came back up from lunch, I grabbed the basket and held it, waiting for their attention. That was quick! They were all staring at me, hands crossed. I’m sure they were thinking they were getting candy. I told them that they had to listen to my directions carefully. They had to carefully choose an egg from the basket as I walked around, BUT they could not SHAKE it or OPEN it! They had to hold it carefully. (I really stressed this and got them all excited.)

After I walked around and everyone chose their special egg, I told them that they could carefully crack their eggs open on their desks. Then, they were to count the coins inside. I walked around again and everyone that could tell me the correct amount got some candy. If they were incorrect, I showed them the correct amount. Then, I simply took their coins and gave them a different handful and had them try one more time for candy.

This kept them engaged for 10-15 minutes and I was feeling thrilled! Next, I gave prizes/candy for various things:

*The person with the most money. (Who has more than $1? Who has more than $2? Those were the questions I asked to determine who had the most, instead of asking how much everyone had!)

*The person with the least money.

*Anyone who had exactly one half-dollar.

*Anyone who had exactly 4 pennies.

*Anyone who had exactly 3 quarters.

*Anyone who had an odd number of coins.

You could come up with your own tasks. "Anyone who can show me 25 cents in two different way with the coins have", etc. 

They LOVED IT! This kept us practicing identifying and counting coins on an exciting and fidgety day before Spring Break, plus it was a “fun” activity. They thought it was part of some kind of party or something. Seriously….

We also played Money Bingo that was part of a huge money pack that was purchased from Primary Punch. 

If you aren’t on Spring Break yet and you are worried about engagement next week, this might only fill an hour or so of your time, but it’s worth a trip to The Dollar Tree for plastic eggs! Hurry! J

Coin Top-It

Last week, I posted about Introducing Coins and Counting Money. I asked for feedback and Teacher Gone Digital gave me a great idea for a quick and easy coin counting game that she calls Coin Toss!

Today, as we did our introductory Envisions lesson on coins, there was a game included, but I quickly decided that Teacher Gone Digital's game would work much better for me to see exactly what my kids know at this point. So, I explained it to them and we had a blast! My students already know how to play addition top-it (from Everyday Math) and we play that often, so I named the game "Coin Top-It."

Students were put into pairs and each pair got a cup of coins. I had put them in boy/girl pairs (just happened to work out perfectly!)  


They dumped the coins out on the floor between them.

 

I told them all of the girls were heads and the boys were tails. So, they started sorting their coins however they landed on the floor.

Then, they each counted "their" coins (heads or tails). I had to remind them to not just COUNT the coins, but to actually count up how much money. One could have more COINS, but it could be worth less money. So, the "top-it" part comes into play when they are motivated to count their coins and check each other to determine who "tops" the other/has more money. Then, they just put all of the coins back in the cup and start again. EASY!

I had to work with one student because of the odd number. After working with him for a bit, I started "trading him out" with other partners, so that I could get some quick one-on-one time with students and counting money. Each student that I taught some tricks to, I told them to go back and teach their partner that trick, since I couldn't get to everyone. They loved it!

I showed them how to sort their pile of coins, then start with the quarters, then count up by tens or fives, etc.


This worked out really well and I'm glad we did this instead of the game that was planned today (straight from the book). I love when last minute decisions work out so well. This will definitely be a game that we play many more times!!! Thank you again to Teacher Gone Digital! Check out her blog!

What a fun Math Monday for us!

 

Introducing Coins & Counting Money

When we return from Spring Break, we are going to start digging into coins and counting money. My kids never do as well with this as I hope they will, so I'm looking for more inspiration. What is the best thing you do to teach your students money? Last week, we had a few days before Spring Break with extra time that I started to introduce things and we did a few activities for me to try to gauge where they are when it comes to money.

We read the short coin books that are shown laying across the top of my anchor chart and as we read it, we added these details to our anchor chart together. My plan is to get them to really "know" the coins so that they will remember what each one is worth.

Then to gauge where they are, I gave them this simple task of showing me as many ways as they can of making 25 cents. Most of them did pretty well. I gave them this fun "March" notepad paper to make it more engaging. Plus, the coins kept them pretty engaged.

 

I'd love to hear more from other 2nd grade teachers. What are your favorite money activities? What are your strategies?