Well, good evening, friends! It’s November. That’s just crazy talk right there!!! We started counting coins last week, so I thought I’d give y’all a little math update 🙂
To get us going we did a quick brainstorm to show what we already knew about coins. I had time for NOTHING fancy, so this is whatcha get!
We sorted characteristics of the coins using this little flapbook…
And, then it was time to start counting that money up! Sometimes I teach counting money with hairy money and sometimes I don’t. It just depends on the kids I have and what I think they need. I like to teach grouping coins together to add easier, as well as ordering money from greatest to least. This year I knew that hairy money was going to be a lifesaver, so I just jumped right on in. Now, I did NOT create this idea, but I will explain it!
Each hair stands for 5. Since the quarter has 5 groups of 5, it gets five hairs. You can give a big spill about how the presidents had a lot of hair (and sometimes even fake hair!) and really play it up… the kids get a kick out of it :))). The dime gets two hairs since it has 2 groups of 5. And, the nickel… although easily confused with the quarter…only gets one hair because it’s just one group of 5! OH, and that penny. He gets a mole instead of a hair because we can’t count him by fives. We have to stop and count on by ones. Then, all your students have to do is count by fives. If they can’t count by fives then this is really difficult, BUT so is telling time, and pretty much everything else in life, ha!
You can right click the image below and save it as an image to your computer.
After introducing hairy money I called my students back one at a time so that they could show me what they learned. I would say about 90% of my class got it after one lesson!
To add a little fun, I decided we needed to incorporate a reader’s theatre into our money unit. I made up a little play about students that are having trouble counting coins. The Coin Gang comes in and saves the day! They each tell about themselves and what makes them unique 🙂 This has been added to my “It’s All About The Money” unit!
Today my friends played Spin and Total with my differentiated coin spinners. That was a lot of fun also! This activity is also in my money unit.
While I still have a few students who are having trouble counting coins, most of my friends have successfully caught on! Next week we start regrouping, so I may be drowning in my sorrows over the next few weeks, ha! If you don’t hear from me then chances are I’m napping or overeating from the stress of regrouping 😉
I have never even heard of Hairy Money before! I can't wait to show my strugglers tomorrow! Hopefully this will be thing thing that makes money click for them!
Thanks:)
Aimee
I laughed out loud on that last part about counting by 5's. Thanks for sharing this idea. Love all your stuff!
Did you know that in Australia there is no equivalent to a penny? They got rid of it and just round totals up or down to 5 cents. And each coin is named after its value and its value only! 5 cent coin, 10 cent coin, 20 cent coin, 50 cent coin. And $1 and $2 gold coin. The dollar bills and coins are different colors and sizes!
It was SO easy to adjust to knowing their coins. Could be a fun lesson to compare coins!
♥ Stephanie
Fishing for Education Blog
I use hairy money with my kids that struggle with counting coins! We say the penny has a bald spot though. 🙂
Love the idea of Hairy Money! My students LOVE anything by Jack Hartmann!!
Erin
Very Perry Classroom