Grouping to $1

Yesterday I shared how to turn a jar of change into a learning activity for your little one.  Little Man is age 4 and did fairly well with it.  So we took this activity a step further.

Today you'll have your child sort the change into piles of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.  It's completely okay if your child has difficulty with this.  Sorting can be difficult for young kids.  If they are experiencing frustration, just have your child pick out the pennies with you.

Once you have your change sorted, tell your child how much of each coin equals $1.  This wasn't something I expected Little Man to fully grasp, but I did want him to have various amounts to count.  We started with quarters because it's takes the least amount of equal $1.  We put all the quarters in groups of 4, then we counted how many groups of 4 we made.  After quarters, we did put the dimes in groups of 10, then counted how many groups we made.  Same thing with the nickels. 

Now the pennies were a bit more difficult.  Since it takes 100 pennies to make $1, we broke it down.  Little Man cannot currently count to 100, but he can count to 10 in a cinch.  So we did 10 groups of 10, and then counted out our 10 groups of 10. 

Yes, this is super difficult.  But the best part about this activity is you can do whatever part you'd like. Kids are interested in money.  At the very least, Little Man learned the differences between coins and practiced his counting skills in a real world math way.  I hope to do this with him frequently.  Maybe by the time he gets to elementary school, he will have memorized the value of each coin and what it takes to make a $1.  If he doesn't, I'll still love him and he'll be one awesome counter.

Update:
Yesterday we took all of our change (and the bucket of change his Papi gave Little Man) to our local bank.  My get rich quick change jar amounted to a little over $30.  Don't be jealous of my wealth.  I can't help it the hubby likes to leave change in his pockets.

Little Man's jar from Papi amounted to almost $20.  When we got home we went to stash it in his piggy pank, but he wanted to share some with Little Miss.  So I broke his $20 for two tens and he shared.  I really, really, really love his heart.