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.

The Learning Lifestyle - Practice Counting

One of the things I love about homeschooling is the lifestyle.  Almost anything can become a learning opportunity.

We took an excursion to the auto parts store, and I spent a lot of time standing around with the kids, waiting for my hubby to pick out exactly what he needed (no complaining here!  The man has the patience of a saint when I insist on trying on every style of jeans that Old Navy has on sale).  Sophie's been getting better at waiting in stores in the past year, but Xander is a different story.  He's a wiggle worm and gets bored very easily.  BUT.  He loves anything that has to do with tools (oftentimes of a morning I hear strains of 'Booooob the Builder, yes I can!!' coming from his room), so I decided to turn what could have ended in me pulling my hair out in frustration, into a learning experience.

Lesson:  Counting Practice

Objective:  Child will practice counting items, building a grasp of one-to-one correspondence (identify that each number corresponds with each single item counted)

Materials:  Any store!

Process:

1. Find a set of like items (a display of wrenches, for example)
2. Instruct child to point to (or touch), each item as he counts them
3. Repeat!

The boy was a counting machine!  He didn't want to stop!  He counted for 15 minutes straight!  He counted:

screwdrivers

oil jugs

baskets

oil pan thingies

floor mats

I think we entertained pretty much everyone else in the store.