Pigs Will Be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money

In this book, Amy Axelrod tells how the hungry pig family finds an empty refrigerator and then decide to hunt all over the house for money. After finding different amounts of money, they drive to their favorite restaurant, Enchanted Enchilada, and order 4 daily specials from the menu.

• As you read the book, have students add the found money to the shoebox or keeping a running tab of coins found in a frequency chart.
  • How much money did the Pigs find altogether?
  • How much did their dinner at Enchanted Enchilada cost?
  • How much money do they have left after they pay the bill?
• NCTM's Illuminations Lesson on Making Change teaches students how to count on from the price to make change.
• Pigs Will Be Pigs: Fun with Math challenges students to use local grocery ads to buy a balanced meal that costs no more than the money the pigs found. Students create a paper plate collage of the balanced meal.

• Math Center: Post the Enchanted Enchilada menu, give students "wallets" with different amounts of money and let students order and total their purchases.

A Quarter from the Tooth Fairy

In this book, Caren Holtzman [Hello Math Reader, Level 3] recounts in verse how a young boy spends the quarter he got from the Tooth Fairy for his tooth.   He first buys a monster for his quarter but then decides it wasn't quite right and returns it, getting 2 dimes and 1 nickel back.   Each time he buys and returns an item, he gets his 25 cents back in a different combination of coins, making this book an excellent introduction to the problem of how many different ways students can make 25 cents.

• Challenge: What other ways could the character have gotten his 25 cents in change?
  • Try to find all of the different ways.
  • How did you organize your answer to be sure you had found all of the ways?
  • Download How Many Different Ways Can You Make 25 Cents? student worksheet and answer key.
• Writing Extension: Each student writes additional pages for the story that describe what the character buys and what combination of coins he gets back when he ultimately returns the item.

Money Madness

This book, by David S. Adler, is a great introduction to a money unit. "It's hard to imagine a world without money," Adler says. He then delivers a mini-economics lesson taking readers from a life without money to today's credit cards and digital money.

Along the way, students learn about trading and bartering as well as the natural progression from metal coins to paper money to the credit cards and digital money that are widely used in today's world. It's a quick read that provides a simple introduction to the history of money and its importance.