Mad over Money: Pictures, ideas, and freebies!

Hey ya'll. I got to thinking the other day...what concepts did my students struggle with most this past year? What could I have done better? What do I want to do different next year? And one came to me - Money!

Am I the only one whose students had a difficult time with this concept? I remember one distinct time, I had 4 pennies in one hand and 1 nickel in the other. I asked my kinders which one was the most (value). What did they all say...the 4 pennies because it has more. I had to explain, "No....the 1 nickel is more because a nickel is worth 5 cents." It's tough for them to get! So - I began searching Pinterest, blogs, TpT, etc. to try to find new strategies for me to approach this concept with next year. Here is what I've compiled/made! 

*Please note that some of these ideas are not original and are gathered from online sources. For those ideas, I have given credit. Thank you!*

This is a great beginning concept: sorting money. I bought this tray at the Dollar Tree and put this activity together in no time. Read more from this previous post {here}.

Thesee are my little coin posters! I laminate them, hang them up, and sing them often. You can download them for FREE at my TpT store! 

.

I found this pocket chart on Pinterest. It's basically my coin poems on sentence strips. But I loved the idea. Students can match the money to the poems, heads/tails, etc. I thought it would be a great interchangeable work station. Source: Under the Big Top

I found these great books on TpT and the best part, they're free! These sweet little books are courtesy of Klassy Kinders. I will be downloading these and using them next year when introducing money. 

Hello fuzzy! I LOVE this idea - super smart. All you need to do is take dollar bills and place dot stickers on top and laminate! Students will place the equivalent coin amount on top! Source: E is for Explore

While we're on that topic, I made coin mats to teach this tricky skill. Just click the image to grab from google docs. You can hold up the mat and introduce the coin, then transition into which coins add up to make other coins. For example, 2 dimes and 1 nickel = a quarter.

What about this one? How many of you all have seen this game? Kathleen's "I like Money!" My students LOVE everything about this. Literally, my students fought over who would play this. ha ha Hop over to her blog and read more about it. You MUST make this and put it on your Summer 2012 to do list! 

So that's just the tip of the ice berg. ha I've found a LOT! How do YOU teach this difficult skill? I hope you enjoy some of my ideas and freebies. Leave me some feedback if so, please. I enjoy reading your comments and appreciate all of my sweet bloggy friends! Have a happy weekend!