Family and Homeschool Activities: Equivalent Coins

These family and homeschool activities are designed to complement the Equivalent Coins topic on BrainPOP Jr.

Pennies for Your Thoughts

Challenge your child to collect one hundred pennies in one week. Encourage your child to look around for spare change (in your couch cushions, in a junk drawer, etc.) He or she can also earn pennies for good behavior, completing quick tasks, or even giving a compliment. Then at the end of the week, count the pennies with your child. Have him or her trade in pennies for nickels, dimes, or quarters. Then count the coins again. Was it easier to count all the pennies one by one or was it easier to sort and count the coins with higher values? Discuss with your child.

Home Store

Set up a store in your home. You can use sticky notes as price tags. Be sure to price items for $1.00 or less, and to make the game more challenging, use prices that do not end in 5 or 0. Then give your child a collection of coins. Have your child “buy” different items, but challenge him or her to use the fewest number of coins to pay for each item. For example, an eraser that costs 30¢ can be purchased with three dimes, but it can also be purchased by using just two coins—one quarter and one nickel. Then swap roles and you can play the customer. You may want to come up short or overpay for items and have your child correct you.