BEST Activities For Investigating Australian Coins {Ultimate Math Centers}

Kids Don’t know the Value of Money! Right? Actually Kids don’t See or use money in real life these days. Gone are the days of counting the money jar so they’re going to need some help in the classroom to replace all that lost learning. Check out our activities for Investigating Australian Coins they’ll get your kids results!

Gone are the days of sitting for hours sorting, stacking and counting the ‘penny’ jar and taking it to the bank.

Opportunities to count coins were literally priceless (pun intended!). But now too many opportunities to work on sorting, categorising, and counting are lost because kids don’t get to see and use money.

Sadly these changes have an impact on the classroom and on teaching kids about money. I have seen noticable changes in how kids interact, handle and understand the concept of money, and it’s not looking good!

I’m sure you have too, let us know your experiences in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you!

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Teaching Money in The Classroom

Too many kids find learning about the basic features of money, the value of coins and notes difficult. This is even before we get to equivalent amounts and giving change!

This makes learning and teaching money tricky. Teaching it needs well thought out money lesson plans, printables and hands-on activities.

To help kids learn about coins, notes and money and help you with teaching numeracy we have a list of 8 key point:

Coin Recognition – Recognise features, describe & order coins
Note Recognition – Recognise features, describe & order notes
Collections – Count and order small collections of notes & coins
Equivalences – Show money values in multiple ways
Change – Give change to nearest 5 cents
Problem Solving -Solve money word problems involving change
Simple Financial Planning – simple budgets
Percentage Discounts

We have used this breakdown to create a range of differentiated activities. They are designed to meet the needs of the students, and not just the Year level requirements. There’s also explicit money lesson plan printables for teachers too.

Teacher Lesson Plans For Investigating Australian Coins

Planning for teaching kids about coins is not as straightforward as it seems. Lessons need to combine many coin recognition skills as well as address common misunderstandings. It’s not enough to ask a child “is this 5 cents ?”

For the planning document we did a lot of research into misconceptions about money. We developed a comprehensive unit with activities linked to the AC Achievement Standard & Outcome:

Recognise, Describe & Order Australian Coins According To Their VALUE

We have structured the lesson plan into 4 sections:

1. Mental Warm up – Activities that build on existing knowledge. This is a refresher of something already taught, an opportunity to build fluency and automatic recall.
2. Tuning in – WALT focus and math vocabulary building. Children’s picture books have also been suggested for this part of the lesson too.
3. Learning Groups – Teacher led groups have been included for assessment tasks. There are also 9 additional center activities for the kids to work on with a student activity checklist
4. Lesson Close – WILT – Check for student understanding using the “Show don’t tell’ strategy.

Investigating Coins Math Activities & Printables

Our investigating coins printables and teacher worksheets don’t miss a thing. They cover everything about Coin Recognition, & ordering coins.

We also made sure the printables do not scaffold the students. Or inadvertently tell them the answer! (a sheet with the title “Addition problems” gives away way too much!)

Here’s what our coin recognition printables will give students the opportunity to learn:

1. - Coins are different in other countries
  - The features of coins – colour, size, shape, animals or people featured
  - Which coins are worth more or less than others
  - How to sort coins according to criteria – size, shape, colour and more
  - Different coins represent different amounts
  - The size of the coin doesn’t represent the value of the coin
  - How to record coin values using, numbers, words & symbols

That’s a lot to cover but we have kept the engagement levels high by creating a ton of printables. We’ve included; mazes, matching games, jigsaws, spinner games, colour by code and a make your own mini coin book.

There’s even a whole new set of thinkboards for teaching money. You know how much we love using them in math! If you’re new to thinkboards you can read more about using thinkboards in the classroom here.

Your kids will love these activities and learn so much about coins. Click the image to see the Ultimate Australian Coins Lesson Plans & Activities

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