Loose Change + 5 Minutes = Math Lesson!

If you have a pile of coins laying around, you can easily use them with any age child to reinforce counting and begin to introduce value.

For younger preschool-aged children, stick with pennies and have them count by ones.

For older preschool-aged children, give them pennies and dimes to count by ones and tens. Transitioning from counting by tens to ones (ex. one dime and 2 pennies is 12) may be tricky at this age. Advanced children can tackle nickels as well.

Younger elementary children can count with all the coins. Again, transitioning is tricky but they can do it!

If you have older children, have them help out your younger children and older children can also practice giving change (a lost art in our technological world, but still important to know)!