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!