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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Money counts

Lesson introducing counting money and making change.

A lesson plan for grade 2 Mathematics

By Angie Horne

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  • Smart money: Students will practice making money trades to equal $.25 kinesthetically and with manipulatives.
  • Subtraction sticks: Using craft sticks, students will practice subtraction of 2 and 3 digit numbers with renaming.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

  • give the value of sets of coins.
  • make change using coins.
  • read and write money expressions.
  • solve simple money problems.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1 hour

Materials/resources

  • Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Voist
  • Overhead Coins
  • Sets of plastic coins containing pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, and half dollars — one for each student or group of students

Technology resources

Overhead projector

Pre-activities

  • Students will practice identifying coins through daily drill on coin facts during morning calendar time. This will include facts like identifying who is on the “heads” side, what is on the “tails” side, value of the coin, words on each coin, date, and what the coin is made of.
  • Students will practice making various coin combinations to total different monetary amounts during morning calendar time.

Activities

  1. The teacher will read the story Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Voist to the class.
  2. After listening to the story, students will be given a package of plastic coins. As the teacher rereads the story, she/he will model writing the mathematical expression and then taking amounts away from $1.00 using the overhead projector and coins.
  3. Students begin with coins totaling $1.00 on their desk. Each time Alexander loses some of his money in the story, the teacher will stop and allow the students to remove that amount from the $1.00 on their desk. Discuss how much money Alexander has left each time and the various coin combinations that students could have on their desks. Continue in this manner until the end of the story when Alexander has $0.
  4. As followup activities:
    • Have groups or pairs of students write a story about a time they had some money and spent it. Then write the mathematical sentences that shows how the money was spent.
    • Write a word problem about someone spending money. Exchange word problems with a partner and have students write the mathematical sentence and then solve the problem for the correct answer.

Assessment

As students are making their coin combinations the teacher will monitor their abilities. The teacher will also listen to responses to questions during the activity. A teacher-made rubric can be used to assess this activity.

North Carolina curriculum alignment

Mathematics (2004)

Grade 2

  • Goal 1: Number and Operations - The learner will read, write, model, and compute with whole numbers through 999.
    • Objective 1.01: Develop number sense for whole numbers through 999.
      • Connect model, number word, and number using a variety of representations.
      • Read and write numbers.
      • Compare and order.
      • Rename.
      • Estimate.
      • Use a variety of models to build understanding of place value (ones, tens, hundreds).
    • Objective 1.03: Create, model, and solve problems that involve addition, subtraction, equal grouping, and division into halves, thirds, and fourths (record in fraction form).

  • Common Core State Standards

    • Mathematics (2010)

      • Grade 2

        • Measurement & Data
          • 2.MD.8 Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ยข symbols appropriately. Example: If you have 2 dimes and 3 pennies, how many cents do you have?
        • Operations & Algebraic Thinking
          • 2.OAT.1 Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using drawings and equations with...