Mrs. Thorp’s Third Grade Blog

Before your child begins to learn how to count money and then make change, there a few concepts that he needs to know well first.

Your child needs to know:

• the names and values of each coin.
• how to skip count by 5’s and 10’s.

There two things that you need to have on hand:

• lots of coins (real coins always work better than play money)
• a number chart that goes from 1-100.

This is what I would do:

1. Show (or review with)  your child how to add 10 to any number.  Using the number chart help your child know that adding 10 to any number means going down on the number chart one square (right below 4 is 14 and right below 27 is 37 etc.)  This will help your child count dimes.  So if your child has 17 cents and gets a dime, he will find 17 on the number chart and go down one row to the 27.  He now has 27 cents.
2. Teach your child different coin combinations.  Two nickels= 10 cents, two quarters = 50 cents, three quarters= 75 cents etc.
3. Now all your child needs is practice.  Start out easy with just nickels and pennies and once your child is comfortable with the easy coins, gradually add dimes and quarters and half dollars.  Let your child use the number chart until he no longer needs it as a crutch.
4. Give your child some coins and ask him to  show you how many ways he can make 33 cents, 78 cents etc.  Which way used the least amount of coins?  You want to get you child to learn to always show the least amount of coins if possible.

There are many games on the internet that can be fun and helpful if you do not always have the coins available.

Let me know how this works or if you have any ideas.  I will write another post on counting  out change from one, five, ten and twenty dollar bills next time.