Money, Money, Money...

Money...the bane of 2nd grade teachers everywhere!!  :)  One of the hardest things to is teach students to identify coins by name and value.  And THEN they have to learn about trading coins - if you have 56 pennies, how many nickels could you trade for?  What about dimes or quarters? 

One way that we teacher these concepts is through a game.  We start with Roll to 25 cents and then progress through Roll to $1.00, and even backwards with Race to 0.  The game is very simple.  The student rolls the die and takes that amount of money.  So if I rolled a 3, I would take 3 pennies.  The next student rolls, takes that amount, and adds it to the total.  Each time coins are added the students examine what they have and determine if any trades can be made.  So, if we have a total of 8 pennies, we can trade 5 of the pennies for a nickel. 

Learning about money is fun - especially when you can play games!