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Share your ideas too. E-mail me at stormie@preschoolbystormie.com
Learning About Money:

From Stormie:

Although I'm posting ideas here as often as I can, my very favorite "learning about money" activities have been reserved for my "VALENTINE'S DAY" booklet along with the other optional February themes of Washington and Lincoln (which provide an opportunity to introduce pennies and quarters). (See the "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers" section of my website for my Valentine's Day booklet.)

Why have an introductory preschool theme about "money?" Well, I was taught (and have experienced) that this theme helps children appreciate the fact that their parents have to work to get money, which in turn buys clothing, food, toys, etc. It can also provide activities for giving children practice in pre-math skills.

*Collage: Draw a line down the middle of a large piece of butcher paper dividing it into two sections. At the top of one section, glue a picture of coins/dollars. At the top of the other section, draw a big happy face. After discussing what money can and cannot buy, provide magazine pictures and let children (with your participation) do a group mural-collage (discussing the subject as you go). Glue things money can buy on the side of the paper with the money picture at the top, and glue the things money can't buy on the other side (pictures of smiles, hugging someone, helping someone, etc). I love this activity because of the interesting conversation that takes place. (Our participation can guide the activity and help children to focus on the sometimes difficult concept of "what money can and cannot buy.")

Alternative: Simply use the magazine pictures mentioned above for creating your own flash cards, and then, during Group Time, discuss the various scenes depicted in the pictures in relation to what money can and cannot buy.

*Patterning With Coins: Children can work on patterning skills with coins. For example, let's say you have 8 quarters and 8 pennies. Give the child 4 of each coin and ask them to make a pattern like yours (you use the other 4). Your pattern might look like: quarter, penny, quarter, penny, quarter, penny, quarter, penny

Or you might simply have the child sit with you as you say the names of the coins aloud while creating your pattern. At some point, ask them which coin comes next, the penny or the quarter.

Obviously, the more coins you have, the more patterning variations you have. For example, increase the difficulty by adding another coin -- say a nickel, or change the pattern to something like: quarter, penny, penny, quarter, penny, penny, quarter, penny, penny

*Coin Values: I personally haven't gotten into much depth with 4yr olds on coin value, although I do like using pennies because one penny is valued at one cent, so it's a fairly easy concept. Still, if children are ready, here's an activity you could do:

After much discussion/demonstration of how five cents can be five pennies or one nickel (or ten cents can be ten pennies or one dime), tape a nickel to the top of one large index card and a dime to the top of another. Place the cards in the Pre-Math Center along with a bowl of pennies. To "play the game," children count out five pennies and line them up on the nickel card, and count out ten pennies and line them up on the dime card. (If you have more nickels, dimes, and pennies, make additional cards.)

*You may want to combine this "Learning About Money" unit with your Presidents/Washington/Lincoln unit, especially if you use pennies and quarters.

Making a Multi-Cultural Connection:
To provide a frame of reference, show children where countries are located on your classroom globe or map, and if possible, provide related pictures and books:

In my "Valentine's Day" booklet, I share my favorite ideas for introducing children to our American currency. As a follow-up multicultural mini-lesson to those activities, we can explain that for the parents of children in other countries (point them out on the globe), a dollar might be called something else. I don't mean to suggest here that we drill the children with names of foreign currency. But by simply introducing a few of them, we are making children aware of the rest of the world. It would be great to have real currency to show them for comparisons with our dollar, but I doubt that many of us have such teaching aids available. (But it is possible to find pictures in books.)

Here are just a few examples of foreign currency names:

Japan (located on the continent of Asia): Yen

Germany (located on the continent of Europe): Mark

France (located on the continent of Europe): Franc

Korea (located on the continent of Asia): Won

Mexico (located on the continent of North America): Peso (pronounced "pay- so)

One way to reinforce this "new" knowledge would be to make similar-looking construction paper currency (perhaps based on a picture from a book) and announce to the children that you have placed it in their play corner for the day instead of their usual pretend "dollars." You could have them pretend they live in that country for the day. Provide as many other items related to the country as you can -- even if it's only pictures and books.
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Please share your ideas too by e-mailing me at: stormie@preschoolbystormie.com

From M J, in Texas:
Piggie Banks: A picture of a pig with a baggie glued on. Every day we add a coin to the bank and count what we have.

From Stephanie Joseph, Marietta, Georgia:
Stormie, We always do a unit on "Money" along with the theme of "Presidents" in February. I am sending a couple ideas I thought you would like:
1. Bulletin Board: Buy large paper money (bills) and cut the picture of the presidents out from the middle. Replace them with pictures of your students. Laminate them. Add the caption "Future Presidents" or "We Look Like A Million Bucks."
2. Rhyming Money Game: To teach the concept that money is used to buy things, I like to use this rhyming game:
Ten Honey Buns
Ten honey buns in the baker's shop
Sugary sweet with honey on top.
Along came (child's name) with a penny to pay,
She/He picked one up and took it away!
Before playing this game, have a discussion by giving the children real pennies, showing them a picture of Abraham Lincoln and talking about who he was, and introducing the value of a penny (one cent). Then, using ten blocks (or other objects) to represent the honey buns, repeat the rhyme, naming a child each time to come and take away a honey bun until they are gone.
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