The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the students to a quarter, a coin almost all of the students are unfamiliar with. Throughout this lesson, the students practice differentiating quarters from other coins because many of the students in this class confuse the nickel with a quarter. After being able to identify each coin and differentiate between the penny, nickel, dime and quarter, the students practice counting groups of coins. Differentiating between the coins is a necessary skill the students need to develop before they’ll be able to successfully count groups of coins. Counting quarters is not expected to be mastered by the end of this lesson. This introduction to counting coins, including a quarter, provides a foundation for students to count money outside of school, and grasp the concept more easily when re-introduced in 2nd grade.
Being able to count coins is a necessary life skill each student has to develop. This is a skill which is used on a daily basis whether at the store with their parents, or buying their lunch at school. Eventually the students need to make decisions such as “Do I have enough money to buy this toy?” or “How much money will I have left after I buy lunch today?” Before making these decisions, the students must understand the fundamental ideas of which identifying features make up each coin, how much each coin is worth, and how to add the values of different coins.
Understanding how to count money is an important life skill. In order to find out how much money the new toy bear or video game costs, you need to know how to count how much money you have. Another time you need to know how much money you have is when you’re going through the snack line at lunch, and want to know how much money you have to buy a snack.
Why is money able to buy things?
Prior to Implementation
During Implementation
After Implementation