Skip Counting Reindeer

As a part of our lessons on coins, we needed to review skip counting by 5s and 10s. So, the kids made these skip counting reindeer. We first counted them by 5s and related this to counting Nickels. They then counted them by 10s and related this to counting Dimes.

Coins: Santa's Toy Shop

The students were busy being little elves for Santa last week. They each created a toy shelf out of construction paper. They then sorted various pictures of toys onto the shelves acccording to their price. They had to match the price of the toys to the coin with the same value. This helped the students learn the value of coins in an engaging way.

Coin Tree Map

The students have been learning to identify the names of coins and their value. They are also learning to identify how many pennies are equivalent to that coin's value. To help them with this concept, we created a large class Tree Map with examples of the coins, their values, and other ways to make the same value.

Pennies for Pasta Donation Drive

Pasta for Pennies
Donation Drive for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
January 13th-February 3rd

Our school is currently collecting donations for the Leukemia and Lymphona society. Your donation may be in the form of coins, cash, or check, payable to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. You may also donate online at: http://ntx.sy.llsevent.org/MikeMoseleyElementarySchool.

The class that collects the most money for our school will receive a pasta party courtesy of Olive Garden. Last year our school raised $2,413.89!! Our goal is to raise at least $3,000 this year for this cause. Listed below are some other activities we will have going on during our donation drive:

1. On Wednesday, November 18th, Mike Moseley will be going purple. We will all wear purple to show our support for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

2. On Wednesday, November 25th, Mike Moseley will put a cap on blood cancers. Everyone will wear his or her favorite cap to school.

3. On Wednesday, February 1st, Mike Moseley will give blood cancers the slip. We all will wear our slippers to school.

4. If we reach our goal of $3,000 Ms. Terry - the school counselor, along with some of our teachers, will dance in tutus at pride rally.

5. On Friday, January 20th, and Friday, January 27th, Ms. Terry will have a surprise for the class that raised the most money that week.

***In just three days this week, our class has raised almost $80.00!!! Way to go!***

Coin Values

As a part of our study on money, we created two anchor charts as a class to help the students recognize the different values of coins and the various different ways to make those values. First the students examined various coins and discussed how they are alike and different. We then learned the following poem:

Penny, penny,
Easily spent.
Copper brown
and worth one cent.

Nickel, nickel,
Thick and fat.
You're worth five cents,
I know that.

Dime, dime,
Little and thin.
I remember,
you're worth ten.

Quarter, quarter,
big and bold.
You're worth twenty-five
I am told.

We then discussed who is on the front of each coin and what is on the back. We also discussed their color and size as compared to other coins. We charted all of the information on the following chart:

A few days later we  created a class Tree Map to show the different ways to make 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, and 50 cents. The students then created their own version of the Tree Map in the computer lab using the program Pixie 2.

Toy Shop and Prize Shop

This week we have been learning about the various coins, their identifying features, their values, and their equavalencies. To assess their ability to identify the coins and their values, the students created their own "toy shops." The students were given various coins and toy pictures which they had to sort on a toy shelf they made out of brown construction paper. Each toy had a price written on it. For example, they had to match a nickel to the toy that was labeled "5 cents." Fellow teachers, I forgot to take a picture today and have already sent them home but you can see an example from last year's class here. The students were also given a coin which they could use at our "prize store." I put out five prices on the table with various items on it from our class prize box. The students could come to the table in small groups to identify which coin they had, its value, and what items they could purchase. This was a low-stress way to assess the students - they didn't even know they were being assessed. They were very excited that they got to keep the prizes - you've got to love kids who get so excited over pencils, erasers, and bookmarks!