Games for Counting Coins

Notes: All templates have been updated!

Counting coins is a big part of learning about money. My students don’t formally get lessons on counting coins until much later in the school year. I feel strongly that identifying and counting coins should start earlier in the school and should be a skill that is practiced throughout the school year. Last year was the first year I did coins with calendar. I have seen it done before, but never tried it. So, inspired by my magnificent teaching partner, we have been using coins to count the days of school. Everyday we put a penny in our money pocket. When we have 5 pennies (5 days of school), we trade them for a nickel. When we get the next 5 pennies, we trade them for a nickel then the 2 nickels for a dime. We will continue this way until the last day. My students really like it and I like the fact that my students are already learning about counting coins!

In addition to using coins with our calendar, I have created a few games to help with counting coins. The 3 games, I created are all the same. The only difference is that one game counts pennies only, another nickels only and a third dimes only. I suppose one day I will get around to created a few games with mixed coins, but for now this is what I have.

All three games are played the same way. Gather the group in a circle and pass out one card to each player. If you have extra cards, give them to your stronger students and ask them to play both cards. Believe me, they will eat up the challenge!! Give the group time to read their cards, help those who need help and then begin by choosing one student to begin.

The student who begins reads the “who has” part of his/her card out loud to the group. He/she says, “Who has 5 cents?”