Teaching Money

Occasionally on the show Good Things Utah, Lisa Bergantz of SMMART ideas (SCIENCE/ MATH/ MUSIC/ ART/ READING/ TIME-OUT for skills) comes on the show to offer ideas. Her ideas on Wednesday's show were for teaching money. Here are the activities she suggested:
MONEY ROLL - Use duct tape to create a tape belt around your child's waist, but make sure the duct tape is sticky side out. Lay down a tarp on the ground and spread coins all over it. Let your child roll around on the tarp and try to pick up coins on her tape belt. When she stands up, have your child pull off the coins and tell you the name of the coin and how much it is worth.
COIN SORTING - Gather several types of coins and let your child sort the coins into bowls, muffin tins, or an icecube tray. Older children can use different coin combinations that add up to 50cents, 75 cents or one dollar and place the combinations into the separate sections of the trays.
MONEY RUBBINGS - Tape every type of coin onto one side of a piece of paper. You can tape two of each type next to each other, so that you will see the front and back sides of each coin. Turn the paper over and let your child rub over the coins with a pencil or crayon so they can observe the details of the coins. Older children can make rubbings of certain monetary values. For example, ask your child to rub 35cents onto a piece of paper. How many ways can they rub this value?
"EYE SPY" with Dollar Bills & Coins - Let your child hold a dollar bill while you play a game of "eye spy". "I spy with my little eye...an eagle." Let your child point out the item that you spied and then your child can take a turn.
MONEY TOSS - Set a large bowl on the floor and then set a smaller bowl inside. Stand behind a marked spot or piece of masking tape on the floor. Let your child toss coins towards the bowl target. After she has thrown all of her coins, let her take each coin out of the middle bowl and identify the name and value of each coin. Older children can add up all of the values that land into the middle bowl. Then, they can add up the value from the larger bowl and subtract or add the two values.
PLAYING STORE - Playing store will strengthen your child's awareness of money values. Place a few coins into your child's purse or wallet. Put price tags onto a few of your child's toys and encourage your child to collect a few items in a shopping bag. Have your child check-out and pay for each item. Help your child count out the correct value needed to purchase each item. This activity can accommodate young learners by only using pennies, to more the more advanced by using different types of coins and bills.

For more SMMART ideas, I have included a link on my side bar to her blog under Teacher Sites.