Money Math: It "Coin-ts"

 

            Today's Snack: Cut a long carrot sideways into "coins." Dip into ranch dressing.

 

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Supplies:

 

Five small cardboard boxes

Masking tape or duct tape

At least five each of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies

Four $1 bills and a $5 bill, or scrap paper to make play money

Scrap cardstock or paper

Pencil

 

            One of the most important grown-up skills is to be able to figure out change. When you have a business transaction going on, even if the cash register figures out how much change you should give, you should know how to do it in your head just in case the machine goes crazy and tells you something wrong. If it's supposed to be 22 CENTS and the machine says to give the person back 22 DOLLARS, you can SEE that that could be a problem!

 

            So let's pretend! Let's play a game of Money Math! First, make a little "cash register" out of small boxes. Tape four of them side by side, and then tape the fifth one sideways, across the top. In the bottom of each box, write the kind of coins you're going to keep in there: from left, 25₵ (for quarters), 10₵ (for dimes), 5₵, (for nickels) and 1₵ (for pennies). Then put the coins in place.

 

            You can either use $1 and $5 bills, or make some out of scrap cardstock or paper. Measure the bills and cut out cardstock or paper that's the same size. Draw the $1 and $5 clearly so you don't get mixed up! Those should be laid across the top of your "cash register."

 

            Now cut up some cardstock or paper into squares that are 2" or 3" in size. These will be the "playing cards" for our Money Math game. Write the following amounts on each:

 

8₵

 

11₵

 

23₵

 

37₵

 

44₵

 

52₵

 

68₵

 

74₵

 

81₵

 

99₵

 

 

Now make new squares, with these amounts on each:

 

$1.04

 

$1.16

 

$1.28

 

$1.56

 

$2.69

 

$2.95

 

$3.11

 

$3.93

 

$4.39

 

$4.87

 

            Make as many more of these as you'd like. Just keep them under $5, to start.

 

            Now let's play Money Math! You can do this alone, in pairs, or in a group.

 

Mix up the cards into a deck so that they're jumbled up, but all upside down. Place them face down. If two or more are playing, make sure everybody can see the card.

 

Now turn over a card. As fast as you can, collect the coins or bills that will make that amount.

 

If it's $4.87, you'd use four $1 bills, three quarters, a dime and two pennies. And so on.

 

See who is fastest at putting money together.

 

Now let's see who can make change the fastest!

 

Pretend a customer has just given you a $5 bill to pay for something. Now turn over a card and it will show you what the cost of the "item" is. You can either work the problem in your head, using mental math, or do the subtraction on a piece of paper with a pencil, off to the side.

 

Here's yet another game: this time, turn over TWO cards at a time, add the numbers in your head, and come up with the bills and coins that will make that sum. The faster you can do it, the better you are at math. And we all know, math and money both really "coin-t."