What's your Worth? Penny or Nickel

Learning the key concept of pennies and nickels is quite challenging since 99% of my students are only familiar with Vietnamese Dong. However, since it is included in our curriculum, I need to push it through and make it unforgettable  for all of us. 

Terms we used are: penny, nickel, coin, cent, worth, value , exchange and symbol.

First, I asked the children if they know about money and what money is used for and why there are different kinds of money. I showed them my wallet and took different kinds of money from my wallet. I can say that it worked well in getting their excitement and fun about out lesson.

Then, I introduced penny. I have play coins available. We discussed the size, shape, color and marking children notice and wrote it on the board in a form of brain map. It was also explained that a penny can be called 1 cent. A penny is worth 1 cent. We collected each one's pennies and count the total. 

The cent symbol was explained and the children practiced writing on their white boards. Then, the children worked in pairs using their small bags with pennies in it. They counted their pennies and wrote the total on their whiteboards.

For their task, I am using a MATH INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOK . This notebook allows the children to be creative and independent thinkers and writers. I asked them to decide how much pennies they want to save in their piggy banks and write the total value of their pennies. 

Day 2: Introduction of the Nickel

A nickel was given to each child to explore and to look closely for the discussion on shape, size, color and any markings. Nickel can be called 5 cents. A nickel is worth 5 cents. The children were challenged to  put all of their nickels in their groups and estimate how much they have. Then we made a pile of the whole class' nickels and counted by 5's to get the total.

Then I asked "How many pennies will I get if I exchange my nickels for pennies?" It was so amazing to see the students using their thinking brains and counting skills. Then I asked them to draw their answers on the whiteboards.

The children worked in pairs, one was acting as a banker and one as a trader and then after 1o minutes, they switched roles.

For their task, I got this worksheet from  www.classroomfreebiestoo.com. It was a very exciting task for every student as they scoop coins out of their bowls and counting and drawing their coins.

We will soon work on dime and quarter. Can't wait:)

2D Shapes

Learning 2D shapes in Preparation Class is exciting given the fact that they had been exposed to shapes  as young as 2 years old.  This is just some of the things we had exploring 2D shapes here and there.

I googled some samples of ANCHOR CHARTS on 2D Shapes and I found what exactly fits to my class. Thanks to my best friend, GOOGLE:)

After discussing about the attributes (lines, sides, and corners) of each 2D shape, this Anchor Chart stays around the classroom for any big and small group activities. It makes my class more manageable during writing activities. The children  visit the anchor chart for spelling and for reference on the attributes of  the shapes. They don't have to come to me most of their time to ask for spelling or any questions related to their tasks. The anchor chart serves them in any ways.

One of the center activities we had was making their own designs using attribute blocks. It was amazing to see their originality and creativity. They discussed and compared their works which reflect communication skills using mathematical language. Below are the samples of their designs.

Once their designs were done, they were given a recording sheet.  They recorded how many particular shapes they used  in their designs. 

The best things about this activity were, they were able to express their creativity using different shapes and able to record their work.