Collect 25 Cents

This week we learned how to play a new game called Collect 25 cents. This is a fabulous game that combines adding numbers with counting money, two seperate skills that we are working on. To play this game you and a partner will need a collectin of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. You will also need one dice. To play the game one person will roll the dice and count out the amount of money that matches the roll. For example if you rolled a 4, the only way to make 4 cents is by counting out 4 pennies. Next the other person will roll the dice. That person will add their money to the previous roll. For example if the 2nd person rolled a 6, they would add 6 cents to the 4 cents. When adding the 6 cents the partners will need to decide if they want to add 6 pennies or 1 nickle and 1 penny. Next they will count all the money (10 cents). The game will continue until they reach 25 cents. This game can be adjusted to the level of the players. All pennies can be used if they are just learning how to count money. The players can also continue to exchange the coins so they have the fewest possible, for example if I had 17 cents I could have 1 dime, 1 nickle and 2 pennies. That would be the smallest amount of coins I could use compared to 17 pennies. If your child has no problem counting up to 25 cents, continue to raise the amount of money they are trying to reach. Another variation would be to roll two dice together to make the total of 1 dollar.

Total of 10, Tens Go Fish

This past week we have been playing a math game that focuses on finding combinations of ten. All you need is a deck of cards. You will need to take out the face cards or you can treat the face cards like a wild card. With a partner pass out 7 cards each. Each player will look at the cards in their hand. They will look for two cards that add up to ten. For example: 5+5, 7+3, etc. They will set these cards aside. Next they will continue to play the game just like Go Fish. Each player asks the other if they have a number that would help them make a combination of 10. If the other player does not have that card, the person asking would take one from the left over deck of cards. Continue to play until all cards are gone. If one person runs out of cards, they will draw 7 more from the deck.

If your child can not hold the cards in their hand, another variation would be for you to place 5 rows of 4 cards facing up on the ground. Have your child look at the cards to make combinations of ten. They can use multiple cards to make the combination. As the child takes cards from the rows, replace them with new cards from the deck.