counting a mix of coins

Fifty years ago I would have asked, “Can the student see the coins?” Now we ask, “Is it a visual disorder?” Students sometimes just need glasses. Sometimes they don’t understand the difference between big and small. Coins are basically just small even though a quarter is larger than a nickel. You can teach big and small by having a piggy banks for small coins and big coins. The bank for big coins would have a hole that is too small for quarters, but big enough for pennies, nickels, and dimes. What would happen with LEGOs? Can the student tell a 4 x 1 lego from a 5 x 1 lego?

Legos have different colors. Maybe temporarily the coins could have different colors.

PS

What would happen if the students sorted the coins blindfolded? Would that tell you if the problem is a visual disorder or not?

I would try the program called touchmath. My son had the exact same problem. You really don’t even have to purchase the program. It basically consists of placing dots on the money in increments of 5’s. For example a nickel would have one dot, a dime-two dots, a quarter 5 dots. Then the child would count the dots in increments of 5’s to come up with total. Fast, fun, easy and efficient.

Good luck.

You can also simply teach, through daily repetition, that, for example, one quarter, a nickel and a dime equals 40 cents. Two quarters are 50 cents, etc. I use this quite successfully along with touch math with one of my students.

I would first of all *slow down* and do one thing at a time — always the first step in getting math right. You say this child can count individual coins, say pennies or nickels or dimes. OK, for a first step, do a mix of just pennies and dimes (for tens and ones; save nickels and quarters for later.) And I would put things on paper — draw a red or yellow circle with a 1 in it for each penny, and a black circle with a 10 in it for each dime. Then write down the total of the pennies on the right, the total of the dimes on the right, and the final total underneath.
Yes, this is going to be terribly, terribly slow. Hey, the kid is already a year or two behind what is expected — are you going to change that in one day? No, take time and get it right this time.
Have him work on it every day if possible, but for a short time, maybe ten or twenty minutes a day, four or five problems. This kind of spaced practice is best for retention.
After a few days of just pennies and dimes, when he has this at least 80% solid, change and have him do just nickels and dimes for a few days. Then just pennies and nickels for a few days. Then just quarters and dimes. Finally after a few weeks, do three coins at once, pennies and nickels and dimes. By taking his time and writing it down, he should be getting a pretty good handle on it by this time. Finally give him all four kinds of coins mixed; teach him to sort them, not by physical size, but by value, pennies then nickels then dimes then quarters; write down the value of each kind; then add it up.
After he has a grip on this value issue, then you can work on counting it up mentally.

Your child needs to know how to count by 1’s, 5’,s, 10’s, and 25’s. In addition it is important to know how to count by 10’s when you begin with some ones: 2, 12, 22, 32, 42, 52, etc… Lots of practice is needed with all of the above!
Then put coins in order from coin worth the most to least. Child records above the coins as he/she counts:
For example 3 quarters, 2 dimes, 3 nickels, 5 pennies:
25, 50, 75, 85, 95, 100, 105, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115= $1.15

I do this for a couple of weeks with my second graders and they’ve got it! However, I spend months previous to this counting by 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, 5’s, 10’s 100’s and 25’s.!!!
I guarantee this works!!!!

Lot’s of good ideas here. I’ll just add my two cents (no pun intended) on what helps in my classroom.

We do lots of counting (as suggested above) and after the basics, really focus on counting by 10 from any number.

We play a coin exchange game. Students roll a dice and take the number of pennies to match the amount shown on the die. When possible, they make exchanges (ie. “I’ll exchange 5 pennies for a nickel.”) You can play this up to any level of coin you want. If you want more info, ask and I’ll give it.

For my big time strugglers, I stress place value. Now understand that I work with first graders and although quarter is introduced, it’s not stressed, but I’m sure a quarter could be incorporated into this same concept. Anyway, we look for groups of 10 first. If we’re not using a worksheet, we organize the money (dimes in one row, etc.). In the early stages, even when using real money, we circle the 10’s. It might be a dime, 2 nickels, 1 nickel and 5 pennies, or 10 pennies. We make a small tens and ones chart and write how many tens we have, then count the extras and write that in the ones. We use those numbers to write the money amount. We follow this up by counting the “traditional” way.

If you need more info, write me.
Another Pam

Fifty years ago I would have asked, “Can the student see the coins?” Now we ask, “Is it a visual disorder?” Students sometimes just need glasses. Sometimes they don’t understand the difference between big and small. Coins are basically just small even though a quarter is larger than a nickel. You can teach big and small by having a piggy banks for small coins and big coins. The bank for big coins would have a hole that is too small for quarters, but big enough for pennies, nickels, and dimes. What would happen with LEGOs? Can the student tell a 4 x 1 lego from a 5 x 1 lego?

Legos have different colors. Maybe temporarily the coins could have different colors.

PS

What would happen if the students sorted the coins blindfolded? Would that tell you if the problem is a visual disorder or not?

I would try the program called touchmath. My son had the exact same problem. You really don’t even have to purchase the program. It basically consists of placing dots on the money in increments of 5’s. For example a nickel would have one dot, a dime-two dots, a quarter 5 dots. Then the child would count the dots in increments of 5’s to come up with total. Fast, fun, easy and efficient.

Good luck.

You can also simply teach, through daily repetition, that, for example, one quarter, a nickel and a dime equals 40 cents. Two quarters are 50 cents, etc. I use this quite successfully along with touch math with one of my students.

I would first of all *slow down* and do one thing at a time — always the first step in getting math right. You say this child can count individual coins, say pennies or nickels or dimes. OK, for a first step, do a mix of just pennies and dimes (for tens and ones; save nickels and quarters for later.) And I would put things on paper — draw a red or yellow circle with a 1 in it for each penny, and a black circle with a 10 in it for each dime. Then write down the total of the pennies on the right, the total of the dimes on the right, and the final total underneath.
Yes, this is going to be terribly, terribly slow. Hey, the kid is already a year or two behind what is expected — are you going to change that in one day? No, take time and get it right this time.
Have him work on it every day if possible, but for a short time, maybe ten or twenty minutes a day, four or five problems. This kind of spaced practice is best for retention.
After a few days of just pennies and dimes, when he has this at least 80% solid, change and have him do just nickels and dimes for a few days. Then just pennies and nickels for a few days. Then just quarters and dimes. Finally after a few weeks, do three coins at once, pennies and nickels and dimes. By taking his time and writing it down, he should be getting a pretty good handle on it by this time. Finally give him all four kinds of coins mixed; teach him to sort them, not by physical size, but by value, pennies then nickels then dimes then quarters; write down the value of each kind; then add it up.
After he has a grip on this value issue, then you can work on counting it up mentally.

Your child needs to know how to count by 1’s, 5’,s, 10’s, and 25’s. In addition it is important to know how to count by 10’s when you begin with some ones: 2, 12, 22, 32, 42, 52, etc… Lots of practice is needed with all of the above!
Then put coins in order from coin worth the most to least. Child records above the coins as he/she counts:
For example 3 quarters, 2 dimes, 3 nickels, 5 pennies:
25, 50, 75, 85, 95, 100, 105, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115= $1.15

I do this for a couple of weeks with my second graders and they’ve got it! However, I spend months previous to this counting by 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, 5’s, 10’s 100’s and 25’s.!!!
I guarantee this works!!!!

Lot’s of good ideas here. I’ll just add my two cents (no pun intended) on what helps in my classroom.

We do lots of counting (as suggested above) and after the basics, really focus on counting by 10 from any number.

We play a coin exchange game. Students roll a dice and take the number of pennies to match the amount shown on the die. When possible, they make exchanges (ie. “I’ll exchange 5 pennies for a nickel.”) You can play this up to any level of coin you want. If you want more info, ask and I’ll give it.

For my big time strugglers, I stress place value. Now understand that I work with first graders and although quarter is introduced, it’s not stressed, but I’m sure a quarter could be incorporated into this same concept. Anyway, we look for groups of 10 first. If we’re not using a worksheet, we organize the money (dimes in one row, etc.). In the early stages, even when using real money, we circle the 10’s. It might be a dime, 2 nickels, 1 nickel and 5 pennies, or 10 pennies. We make a small tens and ones chart and write how many tens we have, then count the extras and write that in the ones. We use those numbers to write the money amount. We follow this up by counting the “traditional” way.

If you need more info, write me.
Another Pam