Money math for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade

As we move through the alphabet in our letter exploration, I like to share letter-themed math. For the letter C, we learned about coins.  Read on to find some money math ideas for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade – featuring coins.

Money math ideas

1 – Sorting – Sort the Coins

Sorting coins is a great activity for young preschoolers. Just set out some coins and sorting trays.

2- Counting, Coin Identification –

Interactive Emergent Reader

I made this emergent reader to give my older preschooler a simple book to read while matching coins to the blank circles.  It gives a little counting practice at well.  Choose to print one of three versions of this book by checking out this post.

3- Matching, Coin Identification –

Coins in Cloud Dough

Bury coins in any sort of sensory material, and let your kids dig for them. I also printed a piece of paper with images of coins for my kids to match them to.  Check it out and get your printable here.

4 – Counting, Coin Identification, Adding –

Play Grocery Store

I confess that we’ve never had a lot of success when playing grocery with any kind of structure.  This time I printed price tags (see the picture), and the kids had fun taping them to real foods from our pantry.  However, when it came time to shop and pay for the items, only my first grader had the patience to find the value of each item and pay for it.

Digging among all the coins was tiresome for my preschoolers.  Another way to play would be to put a number on each item and pay only with pennies.  Or you could not use price tags at all and just let kids have fun using real money.  If you’d like to use my price tags, you can get them HERE.

5 – Graphing – Graphing Coins

Print my free coin graph HERE and use it with your child.  Give him a small handful of coins and have him line up the coins in each row.   Depending on your child’s ability, ask questions like these:

a) Which coin do you have the most of?
b) Which coin do you have t he least of?
c) How many quarters do you have?
d) How many more dimes than pennies do you have?
e) How many nickels and dimes do you have altogether?

6 – Counting, Subitizing —

Roll & Stack

I got this idea from a fabulous money post at PreKinders.  Have your child roll the die, identify the number on the die (subitizing is when they can look at the dots and know the number without counting them) and add to a stack of coins. How many coins can he stack before the tower falls?

7 – Addition, Subitizing –

Roll & Fill the Bank

My Five rolled two dice, added the numbers together, and put that number of coins in the bank.  Since the glass decorative piggy banks are usually not for playing with, he had a lot of fun with this.

8 – Patterns – Coin Pattern Strips

My older preschooler and first grader enjoyed these coin pattern strips. You’ll find some simple ABAB patterns and also some more challenging ones. (Oops – I just noticed that the bottom one in the picture is upside down!)  Of course you could just make the patterns with real coins and have your child finish them, or let your child create the patterns himself. Get our pattern strips HERE.

9 – Coin Identification, Counting –

Collecting Coins Game

This game was a huge hit with my first grader and older preschooler.  They played it countless times. Learn more about it and get your printable from this post.

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