Counting Coins - Lesson 3, How Much is a Penny?

Today's activity comes from 'Counting On Coins' by the AIMS Education Foundation.  One of the things I love about AIMS is that it builds slowly, and at the end children have a firm grasp of whatever concept is being taught.  The 'Hundred Penny Pie' activity in this lesson will be revisited and built upon for several weeks.


I've also pulled in a pocket chart that we will add to as we learn the value of each new coin.  My wonderful library has a kit of coin activities, including coin manipulatives and a pocket chart.  I may have to buy a pocket chart after this unit, because I've really liked using it!

Lesson:  How Much Is A Penny?

Purpose:  Child will identify a penny by name and value.

Materials:  'Hundred Penny Pie' worksheet and printout of pennies from 'Counting On Coins'.  Crayons.  Glue.  Scissors. Coins.  Pocket chart.  Paper.

Process:
1.  Show child a pile of coins.  Ask her to identify a penny.  Place the penny in the pocket chart.  Say, "You're right, this is a penny."  Write, 'penny', on a piece of paper and place next to the coin in the pocket chart.  Then say, "A penny is worth one cent.  We write, 'one cent' like this."  And write '1 c' on another piece of paper, and place in pocket chart. (Yes, it's not pretty.  But it does the job!  You could print the words out, but I didn't want to take the time.)

2.  Give child the printout of pennies, and instruct her to cut them out (she only needs 25 for this activity), and color them.  Then glue them on the 'Hundred Penny Pie' printout.

3.  Ask, "How much is a penny?"  When she answers, "One cent", reply, "That's right.  How much is this penny?  How about this one?  And this one?"  As you ask, point to each penny she has glued on her pie.  Then ask, "How many pennies do you have all together?"  When she counts up 25 pennies, ask, "How much are all of these pennies worth together?"  Answer:  25 cents.

4.  I know this activity seems simple, but it is necessary to establish the value of pennies, before you move on to nickles, dimes and quarters.  The end goal is for the child to understand the relationship between all the coins (one nickle is five pennies, one dime is 10 pennies, or 2 nickles, or one nickle and five pennies, etc), and this is an abstract concept that must be approached slowly.