Counting Coins

Learning Context

Purpose

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.

Objectives

The students will be able to identify a quarter.
The students will be able to count by 25s (using coins as a manipulative).
The students will be able to count different combinations of coins (quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies).

Enduring Understanding

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.

Essential Questions

Why is money able to buy things?

This is the overarching question the teacher is developing throughout the money unit. The students develop a better understanding of this concept as they become more familiar with money.

Guiding questions

How much is a penny, nickel and dime worth?
How is a quarter different from a penny, nickel or dime?
- What are the identifying features you can find on the heads side of the quarter, and the tails side?
What is a quarter [when given a variety of different coins] and how much is it worth?
What symbol do we put after an amount to indicate how many cents we have?
- What are the two different ways we can write how many cents we have?
When adding a quarter to an amount, such as 5 cents, how many spaces do we “hop” on a number grid?

Overview of What Students Need to Know

Prior to Implementation

The ability to identify a penny, nickel and dime.
The knowledge of how much a penny, nickel and dime is worth.
The ability to count different combinations of pennies, nickels and dimes.

During Implementation

Recognize the features of the quarter which makes it different from the penny, nickel and dime.
When counting pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, the student uses a number grid to help them add up large numbers (ex: adding 25¢ to 35¢), which they aren’t able to calculate mentally.
Know that when writing how many cents you have, you write the “¢” sign after an amount of money.

After Implementation

The student is able to identify a quarter.
The knowledge of how much a quarter is worth.
The ability to count different combinations of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.