July 2006

Featured Topic: Money

Counting money involves complex number sense skills as students are usually taught to organize coins, counting from the highest value to the lowest value. This usually involves counting by 25s, then switching to counting by 10s, then counting by 5s and finally counting by 1s. Think about this the next time students have problems counting money and plan to give them regular practice in these counting skills by using some of the strategies available on these new Money web pages:

See Money Activities & Strategies for strategies for teaching money as well as some money games.
See Math-Literature Connections: Money for suggested books to help students master money skills and concepts. Internet links to additional activities for these books are also included.

Featured Game: Clean Up the Money Game

Clean Up the Money! Game: this 2-player game challenges students to toss 2 dice, form a coordinate pair, then collect the coin from that space, if there is one. First students alternate placing quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies on the gameboard. Then students toss a regular die and a special die (A-B-C-D-E-F) to form the coordinate pair and remove the coin from the matching space. Variations of the game are given but students must always find the value of their coins to identify the winner of the game so they get plenty of practice sorting and counting coins.

Download Clean up the Money! Game for game board, directions and recording sheet for different versions of the game.
See more Money games.

Recent Additions to Mathwire.com

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Featured Technology Links: Money

Students may use these sites to practice money skills: counting coins, calculating change, using percents to compute tips.

Play FunBrain's Change Maker to practice making change for different amounts. Students may work at different levels of difficulty.
Play FunBrain's Penguin Waiter to practice using percents to compute the correct tip for dinner checks. Four levels of difficulty make it possible to meet the varied needs of learners in a class.
In Little Finger's Cents Game students must count the coins shown, then enter the total value in the on-screen calculator.
The Practice Counting Money Game requires students to drag coins onto the table to make the correct amount. In the easy version, a "helper" totals the amount as each new coin is added for immediate feedback on independent practice.
See more money links.

Browse Other Activities on Mathwire.com

Visit this page for links to activities organized by math topics.

Browse Math Topics on Mathwire.com

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Recent Additions to Mathwire.com

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Mathwire Archives:

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About Mathwire.com

Mathwire.com is designed to provide activities and appropriate worksheets for teachers to use in their classrooms. All activities and worksheets support the constructivist approach to learning mathematics and the NCTM Standards.

Activities: The activities on this site were developed by Terry Kawas and the teachers in districts where she has worked as a math consultant and coach or with students she has taught in college math-methods courses. The activities are classroom-tested by teachers and appropriate modifications have been made to reflect this field-testing. These activities are posted online in an effort to share quality activities and routines within the mathematics community.

Terms of Use: Teachers are welcome to download any of the activities for free use in their classrooms. No activities may be copied for use on other websites or included in commercial products without permission in writing from Terry Kawas, webmaster. Contact Terry Kawas