Magnificent Money

I found out a few days ago that the kindergarten team at my school was starting their unit on money.  I remembered that I had some things that I could share with them, and with you!

I hope you can use this money sorting mat, done on long paper to provide plenty of room to sort each type of coin.  The nice thing about this mat is the illustrated coins are actual size.
Sorting Coins Mat

I also tell my children that the dime and the quarter have rough edges, while the penny and the nickel have smooth edges.  Being blind, that is how I tell coins from one another.  You can also play a game where you put coins in a sock and have students pull out (by touch alone) a type of coin chosen by their partner.  It's important, before playing this game, to make sure that children understand that the dime is the smallest coin, followed by the penny, nickel, and quarter.

During small group time in kindergarten, I try to integrate math and reading as much as possible.  I made this book to use the sight words we were working on at the time, and combined it with coin identification.
I Have Money Big

My students had a little difficulty remembering the value for each coin, and I found that the following songs really helped them:

"How Many Pennies" by Ron Brown
"That Makes Cents To Me" by Jack Hartmann
"Starts With A Penny" by Mar Harmon


Here is a factual book that I used with my kindergarten students, called The Coin Counting Book by Rozanne Lanczak Williams.

"The Coin Counting Book" by Rozanne Lanczak Williams

I'm wondering if any of you have other great books that you would recommend for kindergarten or pre-k students?  I'd love to hear from you!