Counting Coins

Teaching kids about money is a critical life skill. There are many different math concepts utilized when learning about money. Students learn to first identify coins and bills. Then, students learn that coins and bills have value. When counting money, students use skip counting by 5’s, 10’s, 25 and 50 and also counting on. Finally, students use higher-order thinking skills to derive different combinations of coins that can be used to purchase an item.

In this video, the task is to find the coin combination with the least amount of coins to buy some sweets. The students use only the coins pictured on the worksheet.  The sweets cost 55 cents.  The teacher demonstrates all the ways the total is made with coins given. The coins provided include pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and a half dollar.

Counting money is a challenging skill to master. Students need many opportunities for practice. This video is a great exercise to use in your math classroom.