HOW TO USE COUNT MONEY AS A TEACHING TOOL

Use the Count Coins or Count Money activities to discuss the cost of items and how to use money to buy items and make purchases.

Pay Exact Amounts

Choose the Count Money activity. Talk with the student about the cost of different items. Ask the student to show the amount of money to pay for different items. For example "If a book cost $3.85, how would you pay for it?". Have the student move the appropriate coins and bills to the right side of the screen until the total equals the purchase price of the item. You can also use real cash register receipts or price tags and pretend to count out the money to make the purchase.

Round to the Nearest Dollar.

To help students learn to make real world purchases, practice the technique of going to the next dollar amount and getting change. When students are told an amount to show in Count Money, encourage them to count out to the next dollar. For example, if the directions ask for $3.61, show the student to go to the next dollar amount and count out $4.00. Have them verify that that was the next highest dollar by taking away one dollar and moving the exact amount of change to complete the problem. Discuss with the student how much change they would receive if they made a purchase for a certain amount by paying the amount rounded to the nearest dollar.

 Relate the Cost of Objects to Amounts of Money

Is There Enough?

To have the student decide if they have enough money to purchase a certain item, move some amount of money to the right side of the screen. Decide on an item to buy and discuss the cost with the student. Ask if the amount of money showing on the screen would be enough to buy that item. If it is not enough ask how much more money is needed, and have the student move that amount over. If there is more than enough, ask how much change you would get if paid that amount. Ask if there is enough to buy 2 or 3 of the items for that amount. Or, ask how many items you could buy given that amount of money.

What Can This Buy?

After the student has counted out different totals in the Count Money activities discuss what those amounts represent. Talk about the cost of different items that could be bought and ask the student what could be bought for the amount showing on the screen.