Race for a Dollar

This activity is a fun way to integrate place value, coin identification, one-to-one correspondence, taking turns, subitizing (patterns on the face of the die, as well as groups of coins), and

transitioning from concrete to abstract representation. It is based on ideas that come from several games in FAMILY MATH and Jane Crawford’sMath By All Means: Money Grades 1–2 (see Jane’s article on pp. 1–3 of this issue). In this trading game, two players or teams take turns rolling a die and adding up the

corresponding sum of pennies they acquire until one player/team reaches 100. Each player gets a collection of real or play money:

30 Pennies 10 Dimes 10 Nickels 4 Quarters 1 Dollar Bill and a playing board that looks like this:

We mounted copies of the board on

card stock and covered them in clear shelf paper. (Laminating works well, if you have access to a machine.) Each play begins with rolling

the die and taking the appropriate number of pennies to place in the “Pennies” column. Either through your introduction, the necessity of different coins, or a natural step in conservation, students trade up for the next higher value of coin as they are able. The first player to reach 100 or a dollar wins. You can adapt this for younger children by limiting the goal to fifty or twenty-five cents. You can

adapt it for transitioning into writing and place value by limiting the coins to include only pennies, dimes, and the dollar. Then move to using the Cuisenaire 1 cube, 10 rod, and the 100s flat instead of coins. This kind of game works well with the teacher as one player and the class as the other (taking

turns to roll and trade), especially during transitions as children are finishing up individual tasks and rejoining the group.

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Volume 25 • Issue 3 January • February 2012 Innovations in K–8 Science, Math, and Technology