Frequently Asked Questions:

Q1: How can I teach my child to count money?

Ans: You can display coins and bills to your child and help them identify different denominations with their values. You can play any game involving money to help your child use the skills learnt. Then use their skills of counting forward, skip counting and addition to make them learn counting money and finding amount.

Q2: What are some fun games on Money?

Ans: There can be many fun games on money which can be played to identify coins, add and subtract money or find total amount. For more fun, you can visit SplashLearn page and look for  "Counting money games" in the tab "Math Games by Topics" to explore and practice your skill on money.

Importance of counting money

Money is very essential in daily life. Money is needed to buy things as also to pay for services like cleaning, teaching etc. Sometimes, an item worth 50 cents is paid for with a $1 note. Only by counting money it becomes clear exactly how much money the shopkeeper should return, hence it is essential to know how to count money. Not just in case of change, even for the purchase that has been made, knowledge of counting money helps. Everyone deals with money at some point in time in their lives. Something as simple as grocery shopping cannot be done without the complete understanding of money skills and how to count money fast. There are multiple ways of doing this via mathematics which are explored further here. Most of these would feature as a part of common core math and are also a key reason why math is important, right from the time of preschool education.

Understanding the various denominations of money

Before learning how to count money, it is essential to learn the various denominations of currency. The US Dollar consists of bank notes and coins. Bank notes start with the one dollar note while coins are less than one dollar. There are coins of different values, the smallest being a cent or penny. A coin worth 5 cents is called a nickel, while a coin worth 10 cents is a dime.

¢ is the symbol used to denote cents. Conversion chart for various denominations is shown below.

Addition facts example:

When it is needed to pay a shopkeeper 15¢ for an item, it can be paid for with a dime and a nickel.

15¢ = 10¢ + 5¢

15cents = 1dime + 1nickel

Children can play Math Games to reinforce this understanding.

Money Games to strengthen the understanding of money

Activity 1:

Take three pots labelled as penny, nickel and dime. This is a  mystery puzzle for kids to play.

There is a heap of coins (consisting of the above denominations) kept on the table. The children are required to identify and drop the coins into appropriate pots. This will also enable them to get a grasp of the value of each coin. Finally, after the task is completed, total the amount in each pot.

The first to complete the task and publish the data will get a bonus!

Result of this task: Achieves the double purpose of differentiating one type of coin from the other and refreshes the addition topic.

Some more practice exercises:

• 2¢ + 1 nickel = _______¢
• 2 nickels + 1 dime = _______¢
• 2 dimes = _____ ¢

Introducing the half dollar and quarter

Having understood the differences between penny, nickel and dime, children can now appreciate the higher denominations – quarter and half dollar.

A quarter is equivalent to 25¢ and a half dollar is 50¢.

A quick look at the equivalents:

Counting with quarter and half dollar

Practice problems

•   +   =  _______
• Sam went to the store to buy a pencil worth 3¢, an eraser costing a nickel and a notebook priced at a quarter. How much did he pay in all for the stationery that he bought?

Activity 2:

Play a memory game wherein the cards will have denominations of penny, nickel, dime and quarter. If a card has a penny on it then the card that matches this should be 1cent. In the case of a dime, ten pennies can match a dime or 2 nickels can match a dime. Similarly, for a quarter, the match can be 2 dimes and a nickel, or 5 nickels. In the case of a half dollar, the matching card would read, 5 dimes or 2 quarters or ten nickels.

Result of this task: Helps sharpen memory as well as establishes the relation between nickel, dime, quarter and a half dollar.

Always, group coins of same value. Count the number of coins and find the value for each group.

Comparing amounts

Before going into the details of comparing money, some more information about the dollar. A dollar makes for 100¢ or 2 half dollars or 4 quarters or 10 dimes or 20 nickels.

The following shows how many of each coin makes a dollar.

Normal Usage:

If a chocolate bar costs $1.25, it means that it costs $1 and 25¢.

The point separates dollar from cents.

For example:

Which of the following is greater?

• $2.50 _<__ $2.85                                        
• $0.70 _>__ $0.38                                        

Practice problems

Arrange the following in ascending order:

• 56¢, 82¢, $0.16, $0.61, $1
• $1.27, $0.99, $2.19, $2.71, $1.92

Arrange the following in descending order:

• $4.53, $0.45, $0.85, 76¢, 91¢
• 33¢, 87¢,19¢, 5¢, 12¢, 225¢

Making amounts with coins

Day to day transactions don’t always happen with bank notes of higher denominations. It is expected of the child to know how to make small amounts with coins. Given few nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars, the child should be able to learn to count money and make small amounts. For example, for Amy to buy a scarf which is priced at 85¢, it must strike her that 85¢ is not readily available in the standard coin currency. Hence, a combination of coins is needed. So, Amy could pick a half dollar, a quarter and a dime. This is the easiest and the fastest way one can make small amounts by using just the readily available and the least number of coins.

85¢ can also be formed using three quarters and a dime.

Practice problems

• Make 62¢ with pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars.
• How many pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters are required to make 49¢?
• 38¢ can be made from ____ dimes, _____ nickels and _____ pennies.
• John has 3 same kind of coins and a total of 75 cents. Guess what coin he has.
• Peter and Paul have the same amount of 25 cents. Peter has one coin and Paul has 3 coins. Identify the coins with each.

Learning to add and subtract money

The best tool to teach how to add and how to subtract money is by transactions. Experiences of going to the marketplace, grocer etc, will teach how to play the money game.

Case1:

Suppose Jack buys a packet of cookies for $4.60 and a loaf of bread for $3.80, then the total amount of money that Jack should pay the cashier would be the sum of $4.60 and $3.80.

                                                            $4.60

                                                         + $3.

                                                           $8.40

Total amount due to the cashier = $8.40.

Case2:

If instead of paying the exact amount of $8.40, Jack had a $10 note with him, he would have to calculate the exact change that the cashier would give him. Here, Jack would have to subtract the total bill amount from the $10 note that he paid for the bought goods.   So, Jack would get back $1.60 as change.

                                $10.0

•                           -$8.

                               $1.60

The change that Jack gets back after his purchase = $1.60.

Practice problems

• $2.09 + $0.89 = _______
• $1.73 - $1.07 = _______

Making change using transactions

Transactions don’t always have to end in tendering exact change. They can mostly be paid without having to ask for change. But sometimes, paying the precise amount will be tough due to unavailability of change. So, a note is handed over and change is sought. Measurement of change is critical to every transaction. Sometimes it also requires the ability to add fractions as illustrated in the example below. We will explore how to add fractions in a separate topic but let’s understand counting change here. This is an essential part of early childhood education.

Here is an example shown:

Kimberly bought a packet of nuts for $1.25, comb for $2.60 and a hairclip for $0.83. At the checkout counter, she handed over a $10 note. However, she buys a doll with the remaining money. How much is the doll worth?

Cost of the packet of nuts    = $1.25

Cost of the comb                 = $2.60

Cost of the hairclip               = $0.

Total                                       = $4.76

Amount she handed over = $10

Change she received        = $10 - $4.76

                                            = $5.24

The doll is worth $5.24.

Activity 3:

Play a game of monopoly with friends. This game will strengthen the foundation laid by all the above topics, develops money skills and helps in the better understanding of money. Another source of understanding could be playing online math games and free learning games that feature in various kids’ websites. One can search for “pre-k learning games”, “math for kindergarten”, “education world”, “math4kids” and the like.

Money worksheet – Math Homework made easy (To be considered as a supplement to kindergarten activities and kindergarten reading worksheets)

1. How much are 2 nickels worth?
2. What are the ways to count to 100¢ using a nickel and dime?
3. What is the number of dimes that make half a dollar?
4. $1 and 15¢ = ______¢
5. How many quarters are there in 75¢?
6. Which has a higher value? 45¢ or five dimes
7. Find the sum of 35¢, 7¢ and $1. The answer should be in cents.
8. What should be taken away from 100¢ to make it a nickel more than half a dollar?
9. Write in words: $4 72¢
10. Write in numerals: six dollars and eighty-seven cents
11. Barbara went to watch a movie with her friends. They decided to play a counting game. The movie ticket cost her $2.50. She also bought popcorn worth $1. How much money will she take back after watching the movie if she gave a $10 note?
12. Match the following by drawing lines:

1. 5 nickels + 5 dimes                        1 half dollar
2. 3 dimes + 1 quarter                        1 half dollar + 1 quarter
3. 2 nickels + 4 dimes                        1 dollar
4. 2 quarters + a half dollar                1 half dollar + a nickel

1. Identify the incorrect match:

1. 2 quarters = 1 half dollar
2. 6 dimes = 1 half dollar
3. 10 nickels = 1 half dollar
4. 50 pennies = 1 half dollar

1. Identify the correct match:

1. 35 cents = 5 dimes + 3 nickels
2. 40 cents = 1 quarter + 2 dimes
3. 80 cents = 1 half dollar + 3 nickels
4. 70 cents = 2 dimes + 2 quarters

1. Robin has 5 nickels, 4 dimes and 1 quarter. Julie has 5 nickels, 2 dimes and 2 quarters. Who has more coins? Who has more money?
2. Do more coins mean more money? Give an example to justify.