It's time to crack open that piggy bank and see what's inside. First, count up the pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, identifying what fraction of them are dimes. Then calculate the total value of the coins, writing another fraction...

Round and round you'll go! Learners watch as different-sized circles fill with coins. They collect data and then make a prediction about the number of coins that will fit in a large circular rug.

What starts as a basic question of division and remainders quickly turns abstract in this question of related ratios and radii. The class works to surround a central coin with coins of the same and different values, then develops a...

Use volume to count your change. Pupils watch as a cube is filled with stacks of pennies and make an estimate on how many pennies are in the cube. The teacher provides additional information to the class members about the size of the...

Take your class on a North American adventure with a currency conversion problem. Pupils are asked to change US dollars into Canadian dollars and then to Mexican pesos. The commentary includes two solutions, converting by unit rates and...

Cash in on a great resource. After watching a video of a coin counter, pupils estimate the number of coins and the amount of money they see. They then use additional given information and systems of equations to find the actual values.

A great subtraction and division discovery opportunity for young mathematicians, this learning task involves seven word problems that require multiple steps. Learners use a math table to persevere in solving problems that are...

Here's a fun game on a very serious matter. Scholars play a board game to learn about personal energy use and consumption. They see how various choices affect their energy use and costs, and then apply this knowledge to brainstorm ways...

Block play can teach children about gravity, physics, and spatial relationships. A hands-on lesson incorporates these concepts with an activity in which learners examine the relationship between levels in a pile. Scholars begin to...

Second graders take a trip to the arcade in an activity that engages them in problem solving with money. Composed of three word problems, youngsters are instructed to determine various combinations to represent a given value by using...

Composed of three word problems, this math activity exposes young mathematicians to relationships present in multiplication and division. The first problem is most useful with a tape diagram in which learners are working with equal-sized...

Challenge young mathematicians to buy classroom supplies by staying within the means of a $1,000 budget. The mathematical activity provides learners with the opportunity to decide what items from the supply list would benefit a class of...

Bear with your classes as they explore unit rate and proportions using gummies! Gummy bears come in many different sizes, including a 2,250-gram super bear! The task asks learners to determine how many regular bears and how many mini...

Make money disappear! Young scholars watch as a copier shrinks a dollar bill to 75 percent of its size. Learners are left to determine the size of the dollar bill after nine passes through the copier.

Help learners understand the concept of unit rate as it is applied to buying beans at a grocery store. The objective is to determine the unit rate in two ways, and then apply each ratio to an additional problem. The attached commentary...

Students connect literature (story Jelly Beans for Sale by Bruce McMillan) to math concepts. In these estimating and money lessons, students work with jelly beans, unifix cubes, pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, to estimate and make...

There are three money word problems in this activity, each one is set in the same context. The first asks what was the total amount grandma spent, the second how many grandchildren grandma has, and the third asks how much grandma spent...

This is a good Common Core question that relates inflation to operations with decimals and rounding. Young learners are asked to find out if an amount of money can purchase the same amount of movie tickets in 2012 as it did in 1987. They...

Many students like to play sports and the equipment that goes with it costs money. The resource sets up an inequality that gives a total amount needed to purchase the equipment and the initial amount of money already obtained. In order...

Here is a real-world application for systems of equations. When is it better to pay an enrollment fee and lower daily rate, and when is it better to pay the regular price? The local swim center is having a special offer, reductions in...

A basic set-up leads to a surprisingly complex analysis in this variation on the question of surrounding a central circle with a ring of touching circles. Useful for putting trigonometric functions in a physical context, as well as...

Working in pairs, scholars use picture cards to practice segmenting words into phonemes and blending phonemes into words. When a peer answers correctly they place a penny in a treasure chest. Incorrect responses make the card go back in...

Packing for a trip? This activity allows learners to decide how many magazines and protein bars they can buy with twenty dollars. They can organize their work in a chart to track how many items they can purchase. There are two different...

A digital flip. Introduce your classes to cryptographic protocols using and, or, and not gates. Groups create a complete circuit to convert a binary number into another one. This type of one-way function allows pupils to...