Adding Pennies, Nickels, and Dimes

Summary

Students will add pennies, nickels, and dimes and will organize the coins to display a variety of price values from real life examples.

Objectives

  • Students will add pennies, nickels, and dimes and will organize the coins to display a variety of price values.
  • Students will discuss the importance of money in daily life.

Subject Area

  • Math

Grades

  • K
  • 1st
  • 2nd

Class Time

  • Total Time: 0-45 Minutes minutes

Materials

  • Several full and empty containers for grocery store products
  • Pocket chart and large paper coins
  • Number chart (1 to 100)
  • Mint tins (one for each student) with 10 pennies, 5 nickels, and 5 dimes (real or plastic) in each tin
  • Price sheets (sheets of paper with a picture of a grocery item, a price, and an area for the student to trace coins adding up to that price)
  • Pencils

Lesson Steps

  1. Fill a student's hands with several grocery store products and ask your class:
    • If I went to the store and wanted to buy all these items, what would I need to know about them before I can pay? (price of each item)
    • Why would I need to know that? (So you'll know how much money you'll need)
    • What would I do with the money? (Pay the cashier for the items)
  2. Explain to the students that they will be adding pennies, nickels, and dimes so that they can buy things they need.
  3. Start a discussion about the uses of money by asking what people use money for in daily life, what kind of things money can buy, and what money can buy besides things. Answers can include arcade games, movies, and riding public transportation.
  4. Explain that the students will be learning how to use coins to buy certain items.
  5. Review coin names and values with class. Which coin is worth the most in value? The least?
  6. Hold up one of the grocery items and tell the class that at the grocery store this item might cost 47 cents.  Ask what coins we could use to make 47 cents (using only pennies, nickels, and dimes). Ask what coin we might start with to get to the price of this product. (a dime.) Ask why a dime is the best choice. (It's worth the most of these three coins, and it's best to start counting with the highest-value coin.) Ask what number we will be counting by if we start with a dime. (10s)
  7. Start counting together by placing the large paper coins in the pocket chart for all the students to see.
    • If I put in one dime, how much money do I have? (10 cents) If I add another dime, how much money do I have now? (20 cents) If I add another one? (30 cents)And another? (40 cents)
    • Should I add another dime? Use the number chart to show the students your goal (47) and how much money you currently have. Why should or shouldn't we add another dime? How much would another dime add up to?
    • How much more change do we need to get to 47 cents? (7 cents) What coins do we have that are less than 7 cents? Which is the larger of the 2 coins that are less than 7 cents? If I add a nickel to the 40 cents we already have how much money will I have? Add the nickel to the pocket.
    • If I add another nickel is that too much or too little money? (too much.) So what coin should we use next? How many pennies should we add to get from 45 cents to 47 cents? Add 2 pennies to the pocket.
  8. As a class count the value of all the coins. (10, 20, 30, 40, 45, 46, 47 cents)
  9. Gauge the class's comprehension and ask some volunteers to demonstrate how to add coins to find the value of a second product.
  10. Review the rules for using the coin tins. Distribute the tins. Have the students work independently to figure out the prices of 2 more items using the change in their tins.
  11. Divide the class into pairs. Give each pair 2 price sheets (a piece of paper with a picture of a grocery item, a corresponding price, and an area for the student to trace coins). One student will count and lay out the coins on the sheet and their partner will check their work. After the check, go around to verify the pair's work.
  12. Once the work has been verified, the first partner will trace the coins onto the sheet and write the value of the coin inside each circle.
  13. While the tracing is going on, the second partner can begin to count out the coins for the second product.
  14. Repeat the verification and tracing process for this second sheet.
  15. Allow some of the students to share their work with the class.
  16. Review with the class what they worked on today.

Differentiated Learning Options

Begin a discussion of "greater than" and "less than" as an extension of this activity.

Assess

  • Assess whether the students met the lesson objectives by noting whether they were able to organize the coins from the information they learned and to create correct coin combinations using dimes, nickels and pennies.
  • You could use a rubric to evaluate the students' problem solving process.
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Common Core Standards

Discipline: Math
Domain: 1.OA Operations and Algebraic Thinking
Grade(s): Grade 1
Cluster: Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction
Standards:

  • 1.OA.1. Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart and comparing with unknowns in all positions, eg, by using objects, drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.
  • 1.OA.2. Solve word problems that call for addition of three whole numbers whose sum is less than or equal to 20, eg, by using objects, drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem. 

National Standards

Discipline: Mathematics
Domain: K-2 Number and Operations
Cluster: Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates.
Grade(s): Grades K–2
Standards:

In K through grade 2 all students should

  • develop and use strategies for whole-number computations, with a focus on addition and subtraction;
  • develop fluency with basic number combinations for addition and subtraction; and
  • use a variety of methods and tools to compute, including objects, mental computation, estimation, paper and pencil, and calculators.

Discipline: Mathematics
Domain: K-2 Number and Operations
Cluster: Understand meanings of operations and how they relate to one another.
Grade(s): Grades K–2
Standards:

In K through grade 2 all students should

  • understand various meanings of addition and subtraction of whole numbers and the relationship between the two operations;
  • understand the effects of adding and subtracting whole numbers; and
  • understand situations that entail multiplication and division, such as equal groupings of objects and sharing equally.

Discipline: Mathematics
Domain: All Problem Solving
Cluster: Instructional programs from kindergarten through grade 12 should enable all students to
Grade(s): Grades K–2
Standards:

  • Build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving
  • Solve problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts
  • Apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems
  • Monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical problem solving

Discipline: Mathematics
Domain: All Connections
Cluster: Instructional programs from kindergarten through grade 12 should enable all students to
Grade(s): Grades K–2
Standards:

  • Recognize and use connections among mathematical ideas
  • Understand how mathematical ideas interconnect and build on one another to produce a coherent whole
  • Recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics

Discipline: Mathematics
Domain: K-2 Number and Operations
Cluster: Understand numbers, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems.
Grade(s): Grades K–2
Standards:

In K through grade 2 all students should

  • count with understanding and recognize "how many" in sets of objects;
  • use multiple models to develop initial understandings of place value and the base-ten number system;
  • develop understanding of the relative position and magnitude of whole numbers and of ordinal and cardinal numbers and their connections;
  • develop a sense of whole numbers and represent and use them in flexible ways, including relating, composing, and decomposing numbers;
  • connect number words and numerals to the quantities they represent, using various physical models and representations; and
  • understand and represent commonly used fractions, such as 1/4, 1/3, and 1/2.

Discipline: Mathematics
Domain: All Communication
Cluster: Instructional programs from kindergarten through grade 12 should enable all students to
Grade(s): Grades K–2
Standards:

  • organize and consolidate their mathematical thinking through communication 
  • communicate their mathematical thinking coherently and clearly to peers, teachers, and others;
  • analyze and evaluate the mathematical thinking and strategies of others; and
  • use the language of mathematics to express mathematical ideas precisely.