Explore Creating and Counting Collections of Bills and Coins - Rich Mathematical Task Template, Student Version, Anchor Papers, and Scoring Rationale

Counting bills and coins, comparing values, and making change - Mathematics Instructional Plan

3.6 Money Assessment 10 questions; Includes counting money, comparing 2 sets of coins, making change $5.00 or less. 

This is a cross-curricular activity that uses the story Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday to practice money and decimal skills in addition to reading and writing skills. After reading or hearing the story, students will complete the attached worksheet. (If it's read aloud, students would need a way to refer back to the story to answer the questions. The worksheet has a mixture of reading and math questions. It can be edited if you choose. It can be used for either 3rd or 4th grade. With slight modifications, it could also be used for middle school EL students to learn about currency.  

 This science and math lesson uses coated candy and water to create a rainbow on a plate. It takes a popular internet activity and modifies it for the classroom. It's extended by having students hypothesize if other temperatures of water will work and if different colors of the candies run faster than others. It also meets the math SOLs because students can calculate the cost of the experiment and/or create graphs of the results of the experiments.  You could extend this activity into art or English writing by having students draw their rainbows or write about what they saw happening on the plate as a report writing. You could have them take it a step further and do a creative writing about what they think is at the other end of the rainbow. 

With this lesson, students will practice the Math Standards of Learning around counting and comparing values of money and creating equations while also learning computer science terminology for problem solving. Students will learn to start counting change with the highest value coin possible.

Standard of Learning (SOL) 3.6b
The student will compare the value of two sets of coins or two sets of coins and bills.

Standard of Learning (SOL) 3.6c
The student will make change from $5.00 or less.

Standard of Learning (SOL) 3.6a
The student will determine the value of a collection of bills and coins whose total value is $5.00 or less.