Counting Money at Gary's Grocery Market

Introduction and Topic
Background

In the world of teaching it is not only important to teach a child holistically, but to realize
that learning vital lessons of life within the classroom will also be very beneficial to the whole
child. Upon realization of this thought process, it is then important for teachers to actively take
charge and allow students to learn about experiences in the real world. This theory and other
reasons lead me to decide to create a unit where a child will better learn the concept of money
and how many different mathematical functions it can fulfill. Throughout this unit I hope that
the children will receive knowledge of how to assess a real life situation when purchasing items
that may be on sale, knowing how to create change and exchanging coins for a larger
denomination of money. So by the end of this unit a student will theoretically be able to go
shopping and calculate the majority of what he or she may be purchasing.

As of now, within my educational process I have decided that I would like to start off by
teaching at the 5^th grade level or higher, therefore causing me to gear this lesson towards the 5^th
grade level of study. Though students begin to interpret the value of money early on in the
educational process, I believe that students will benefit more in the long run if this concept is
presented to them in one way or another at most if not all grade levels of the preparatory years.
It is important for us as a society to realize that money, whether we like to believe or not, makes
the world go round. Every where we turn the exchange of a monetary system is being displayed
in more ways than one, it is then crucial to edify the understanding within our classrooms. So
through this unit I will be empowering students to become more independent and successful with
the concept of handling money.

Not only will students be grasping onto methods of exchanging and interpreting the value
of the dollar, but they will also be practicing multiple math skills that will continue to apply
through their educational career. Through this unit children will be able to take with them a
better knowledge of adding, subtracting, and multiplying decimals; creating formulas to reach a
numerical value; converting numerical values to fractions, decimals, and percentages; and finally
adding and subtracting fractions . Though many other concepts will be taught these are some of
the most rudimentary skills that they can continue on with in higher levels of education. Within
this unit I will be covering some of the Priority Academic Student Skills delegated to the
mathematics section of curriculum. Those standards are:

Standard 2: Number Sense - The student will demonstrate an understanding of the basic concepts
and properties of real numbers

1. Fractions, Decimals and Percents
b. Compare, convert, and order common fractions and decimals to the 100s place
to solve problems
c. Represent with models the connection between fractions, decimals, and
percents and be able to convert from one representation to another
d. Explain verbally with manipulatives and diagrams 25%, 50%, 75%; use these
percents to solve problems and relate them to their corresponding fractions and
decimals

Standard 3: Number Operations and Computation- The student will estimate and compute with
whole numbers, decimals and fractions

2. Whole Numbers, Decimals, and Fractions
a. Add and subtract decimal numbers with the same and different place values to
solve problems
b. Multiply and Divide whole numbers and decimal numbers with 1- or 2- digit
multipliers or divisors to solve problems
c. Add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers to solve problems using a
variety of methods.

While adhering to these standards I will hopefully give students a better understanding of the
mathematical facet of money. So I will not only teach the child as a whole, but will be providing
examples of real world experiences to better prepare the child for life.

Lesson Development
“Counting Money at Gary’s
Grocery Market”

Overall Lesson Plan

-Introduction and Review
-understand the value of each coin and its relationship to a dollar
-review notation and associative properties of $ and ¢
-review and introduce place value all the way through the 100s beyond the decimal
-practice adding, subtracting and multiplying decimals

-Fractions through the value of coins
-review how many coins it will take of each to make a dollar
-present the values of quarters and dimes as the fractions of a dollar
-introduce the conversion of amounts of money into fractions; and the opposite, fractions
into money
-present the addition and subtraction of fractions

-Percentages through the value of coins
-display that the value of a quarter is a certain percentage of a dollar
-identify the correlation of percentages, decimals, and fractions
-convert percentages, decimals, and fractions into one another

-Finding percentages of monetary amounts
-review percentages of a whole dollar
-review the subtraction of decimals
-introduce the multiplication of decimals in order to find percentages (with limits of 25%,
50%, and 75%)

Day 1
“Let’s make change!”

“Let’s Make Change!”

Objective: Through this lesson children will review and learn if so needed the denomination of
each coin. With manipulatives students will create various ways to equal a given amount of
money while also notating a formula to represent the abstract formula of the tangible money.
Students will also be able to convert ¢ to $ and the vice versa, while also comprehending the
100s place value beyond the decimal when writing $ amounts. Then will also rehearse addition
and subtraction of decimals with the exercise of giving back change after paying with a
particular $ amount.

Tools: individual packets of play money
paper and pencil
“Let’s Make Change!” worksheet

Instruction: At the beginning of the lesson students will be handed their own packets of play
money consisting of at least 10 of each coin and $1 bills. I will begin by asking students to
identify each coin and correct or introduce if so needed. I will then proceed to explain the
correlation between ¢ and $ so that students can convert from one to the other (i.e.: 167¢ =
$1.67). From there I will then call multiple amounts of money and ask students to count out the
change in order to reach that amount, sometimes with limitations (i.e.: only use two coins to
create 50¢) or without. At this point I will then to review or introduce the concept of multiplying
whole numbers to decimal. I will then go back to calling out amounts only this time ask students
to create a formula using addition or multiplication to represent the change they used. (i.e.: 35¢
= 2 dimes and 3 nickels = 20¢ + 15¢ or 35¢ = 7 nickels = 7 x $.05) Upon completion of this I
will then review subtraction of decimals, then applying this by calling out total sales prices and
giving the amount I paid with and asking the to notate the difference and then configure the same
amount with their play money. (i.e.: Total: $3.57 Paid: $5.00 = $5.00-$3.57 = $1.43)
Assessment: Upon completion of the daily instruction students will be given the worksheet
“Let’s Make Change” where all concepts will be rehearsed. Aside from this written assessment I
will be also able to obtain assessments by constantly observing students efforts and progress in
the classroom with the use of manipulatives.

Day 2
“Just a fraction of the price”

“Just a fraction of the price”

Objective: Through this lesson students will once again visit the denomination of coins and
correlate the value of a dollar to how many of each coin it will take to equal that dollar. From
this concept students will then continue on to discover that a dime and a quarter are a particular
fraction of the dollar. Along with these items, students will be able to convert dollar amounts
into fractions and the vice versa of fractions to dollar. And finally practice the skill of adding
and subtracting fractions.

Tools: Play money
Fraction puzzles
“Just a fraction of the price” worksheet

Instruction: At the beginning of this lesson students will once again receive their individual set
of play money. With this manipulative, I will then ask the students to figure out how many of
each coin will allow them to exchange for a dollar. Within this process emphasize the amount of
quarters and dimes that it takes to equal a dollar. From here students will receive the fraction
puzzles which illustrate that 10 dimes (puzzle pieces) when flipped over will equal a dollar and
the same illustrated with 4 quarters (puzzle pieces); which will help to exhibit that these coins are
a fraction of a dollar, with this understanding I will then proceed to define the denominators of
1/10 and ¼ for dimes and quarters respectively. Next I will then introduce how to change dollar
amounts and illustrations of coins into fractions comparable to a dollar , and the opposite given a
fraction notate a dollar amount. After this, I will then review and present the adding and
subtracting of fraction with common denominators.

Assessment: Upon completion of instruction students will then receive the worksheet “Just a
fraction of the price” in order to apply the skills learned during the day’s lesson.

“Just a Fraction of the Price”

List the proper quantity of each coin to equal the given amount.
1. $2.49 quarters_____ dimes_____ pennies_____

2. 68¢ dimes_____ pennies_____

3. 45¢ nickels_____

4. $1.79 quarters_____ pennies_____

5. 185¢ quarters_____ nickels_____

6. $1.39 quarters_____ dimes_____ nickels_____ pennies_____

Take the given and change it either to a fraction or dollar amount.

7. $0.75 = _____ 8. 2/4 = _____ 9. 100¢ = _____ 10. $0.70 =_____

11. 5/10 = _____ 12. ¾ = _____ 13. 30¢ = _____ 14. 9/10 = _____

Change the given amount(s) into a fraction and complete the appropriate function.

15. 40¢ + 5/10 = _____ 16. 8/10 - $0.30 = _____

17. ¼ + $0.50 = _____ 18. 25¢ - ¼ = _____

Change the fraction into a dollar amount and complete the equation .

19. 7/10 x 2 = _____ 20. ¾ + 50¢ = _____

21. 2/4 - $0.10 = _____ 22. 3 x 3/10 = _____