MONEY MADNESS


Recommended Grade: Primary

Curriculum Expectations (strand):

Number Sense & Numeration

Grade 1: use concrete materials to investigate money amounts (to 20c)

Grade 2: use concrete materials to represent money amounts to 100¢

Grade 3: use concrete materials to represent money amounts to $10

Learning Goal: We are learning to add mixed coins so that we can begin to understand how to make purchases with the coins we have at the time.

Required Supplies:

      • Dash
      • Learning Carpet
      • Coins
      • Blockly App (or Blocklify for French)
      • iPad mini

Instructions or Directions:

1. Lay out a variety of coins in Learning Carpet squares.

2. Provide students a target money amount.

3. Students take turns coding to get to only one coin each, per turn, working toward their target amount.

4. If they land on a coin, they collect it.

5. On subsequent turns, if they go over the target amount, they put all the coins back and restart.

6. First one to the target amount "wins."

7. Extension: Label a starting and ending point. Assign a limited number of moves, such as six, and have students take turns trying to collect the highest value and get to the finish line.

Possible Extensions:

  • Turn it into a game where students have to move from one side of the grid to the other trying to capture the most or least amounts of money throughout their journey.
  • Make a rule where if one student's Dash bumps into their opponents, they lose all of their money.

Reflection Questions:

1. What are the different combinations you were able to collect to reach the target amount?

2. How did your coins differ from your partners'?

3. What was the smallest number of coins to reach the target amount?

4. Why did you have different numbers of coins if you were all working toward the same target number?