Counting Coins

The Penny Pot by Stuart J. Murphy is a Math Start book about counting coins.  The story is about a girl named Jessie who wants to have her face painted at the school fair, but she does not have enough money.  The art teacher assures her that people will put their extra pennies in the penny pot and if she is patient, Jessie will soon have fifty cents to pay for the face painting.  As each child arrives, the reader can see the coins he or she will use to pay for the face painting.  At the end of the book, there are suggestions for more fun with the math concepts in the book. 

While reading the book, we counted our own coins to match the amounts each character in the book had.  We also discussed whether he or she had enough for the face painting and how much money was left over for the penny pot.

There is a game suggestion in the back of the book called "Trading Coins".  Each player receives a mat with designated columns for pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.  To make the mats, I just put a little piece of tape on the back of each coin and stuck the coins on a piece of white paper I folded into four columns.  Then I laminated three of these so they can be used over and over again.  We put a big container of coins in the middle of the table and took out the number of coins as needed.  To play, each player rolls the die and receives that number of pennies.  Once a player receives five pennies, he can trade for a nickel. The idea is to continue trading up for nickels and dimes and the first person to get a quarter wins.

Thank you, Natalie from Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns, for writing about this great book!!!