Lesson Plans

Students will compare sets of coins and determine which group is greater than, less than, or equal to the other according to the number and value of each set. Students will read and interpret a simple bar graph to answer questions.

Students will observe the physical attributes, such as size, height, weight, and length, of coins. Students will play a game to compare coins to one another.

Using coins as the standard of measure, students will estimate and check weights of classroom objects.

Students will play a game to practice matching each coin denomination to its value. Then students will identify the name and value of each coin.

Using real or paper coins, students will discuss what they know about coins, coin values, and place their coins in value order.

Students will play a game in which they create monetary amounts using different coin combinations.

Students will explain the meanings of spending and earning and associate the correct mathematical function with each one. Students will also make change up to a dollar.

Students will review coins and their values, as well as practice skip counting using coins.

Students will explore the purchasing power of the half dollar. Students will collect and graph prices over time, and then write math problems to determine the percent increase between periods.

Students discuss and research an individual or event from a commemorative coin. They then use the information to write acrostic poems, creating stand-up accordion books to display the poems.

Students will add pennies, nickels, and dimes and will organize the coins to display a variety of price values from real life examples.

Students will begin to understand how money passes through many different hands. Students will explore plot organization by designing a flow chart for a story about money changing hands.

Students will learn about the evolution of coins by identifying features used in Roman times that have been carried into modern times. Then students will create their own Roman-inspired coin.

Students will use various coin denominations to explore the concept of fractions.

Students will practice identifying coins and their values away from their desks using physical motion.

After defining spending and saving and discussing related habits, the class takes a poll to see how their peers like to manage money. Then students graph their findings and discuss the survey results.

Students will estimate the number of pennies it takes to fill outlines of various basic shapes.

Students will work in groups to examine a jar of coins to make both "guesstimations" and more precise estimations.

Students will solve story problems involving money. They will use higher level critical thinking skills to develop their own strategies for solving the problems.

Students will create different coin combinations for a single amount.

Students will apply their knowledge of adding coins to a real life situation when they create different coin combinations to buy their daily snack.

Students will make predictions about the probability of a spun nickel landing on either heads or tails. Students will then test their predictions through experimentation.

Students will play a game to help them develop an appreciation for statistical methods as a powerful means for decision making.

Students will apply mathematics strategies of counting, adding, and subtracting decimal amounts to create change for a dollar.

Using Amy Axelrod's Pigs Will Be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money as a reference, students calculate how much money the pigs in the book find and spend. Then they determine how else to spend the money at a restaurant and create posters showing their menu orders.

Teams of students research commemorative coin honorees and share the reasons for the recognition with the class. Then the teams select individuals they believe deserve to be on a coin, write short essays explaining their selection, and illustrate coin designs.

After learning how many coins a new press can strike in a minute, students calculate the number of new coins that can be made in a single day. Students then share their problem-solving strategies with the class, using them to make additional calculations.

Students will use various coin denominations to explore the concept of fractions.

Students will conduct a science experiment where they will learn that the different denominations have characteristic densities that can be used to help identify the type of coin being used.

Students will use letter and sound relationships of initial consonants to complete sentences that follow a given repeating pattern. These sentences will be based on coin terms found on the U.S. Mint Coin Classroom.

Students will play a game where they determine the value of different coin combinations.

Students will answer coin related math questions using the guess, check and revise process for problem solving.

Students will solve story problems that involve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with decimals. Students will represent parts of a dollar as a fraction, a decimal, and a percentage.

Students will use their abilities to recognize coins and their values in this game that focuses on locomotor skills (skip, slide, gallop, run, jump). This game also requires students to add coin values.

After reading an appropriate children's math text, students will review same type (denomination) coin sets, and will build same type sets equaling fifty cents.