Looking for new and fun ways to practice coin-counting with your child? Being able to work with money is an important part of the early math curriculum. By the time kids reach third grade, they are expected to know each coin's value and be able to count a set of coins up to 50 cents and higher. Help your child practice this math skill to build up ease and confidence. These simple and inexpensive games will give your child more ways to practice math in a fun way.
What You Need:
- Paper bag
- Play or real coins—two of each of the following: pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars
- Pencil
- Paper
- One to four excited players
What to Do:
The goal of these games is to practice counting and adding coins to reach $1.00.
Game #1:
- Place all of the coins into the paper bag, and shake the bag.
- Start the first round of the game by having one player pick a coin at random from the bag. Each player will then draw this coin on their sheet of paper.
- Next, after a signal, have all players continue to draw coins on the paper until they have reached $1.00. The first to $1.00 accurately wins the round. Challenge the players to come up with coin combinations that are different then what they or others have written before.
- Continue the game, having each player pick a coin and draw coin combinations until there are no more coins in the bag.
- The winner is the one who has won the most rounds.
- Place all of the coins into the paper bag, and shake the bag.
- Have the first player pick a coin from the bag and draw it on his sheet of paper. He will then return that coin to the bag.
- Shake the bag again, then have the second player pick a coin from the bag, draw it on his sheet of paper, and return it to the bag.
- Continue with the other players in this way, having each player pick a coin and draw it on their papers. Each player will need to count the total value of the coins on their paper after each turn.
- The winner is the first player to reach $1.00 or more.
By Victoria Hoffman
Victoria Hoffman, M.A., is an elementary school teacher, writer and mother from Leonardtown, Maryland. She has taught grades K-5 in both regular and special education classrooms.
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