Show me the money.
Reading, games, playing store, household management, coin rubbing, shopping, sorting, sums, fractions...
You can't buy a dinosaur with a dime. A book by Harriet Ziefert, was our jumping off point. It is about a boy saving his allowance (he gets .75 in 5 dimes and 5 nickels) to buy something at the store. It is problem solving, skip counting, practical everyday math.
The book has additional suggestions for activities and conversation around money issues.
Because the book deals with quarters, dimes and nickels: I made a chart with three sections, randomly grabbed up coins to count and chart.
I found the above clip art by googling "clip art canadian coin money" and used them to make up a few games, similar to bingo, simple dice/path games, matching and money worksheets. We pulled out the hundred chart and counted out how many of each type of coin made a dollar, 100 cents.
We set up a store. Using strips of paper (that I wrote amounts on) to draw from for prices. I gave each of the boys three dollars in quarters, dimes and nickels to spend. When they picked their purchase they drew a price and counted out the amount from their money.
The theme grew throughout the day and I stepped back and let them play money for most of the day. Self initiated activities included designing their own paper money, more dramatic play with bank robbing and policing at the store, baking cookies to sell in the store, discussions about allowance (we don't do it yet) and what chores are worth, our defined difference between helping your family as a responsibility (not paid) and doing things extra... above and beyond to save for desired items.
