Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Summer Learning Series with Money

Every child loves summer. Summer is a time for playing outside, swimming in the pool, and hanging out with your friends. Unfortunately, summer is also a time when kids lose a lot of what they learned during the previous year of school. As an elementary school teacher, it was frustrating to watch my students struggle at the beginning of each year with objectives that they had mastered the previous year. As a parent, I want to make sure that this doesn’t happen to my children. This summer, I will be setting aside a little time each day for some fun learning activities for my kids. Starting in June, check in each Tuesday if you are looking for some activities for your kids. I will be posting a few things we did the previous week to share. Also if you are interested in doing the same thing, I would love to link up with all you creative moms out there! Just shoot me an email and let me know you are interested. (betweenthelines-kam@hotmail.com)  Let’s work together to help our children have a fun, but educational summer!

Last week, my girls and I played a new game using bathroom cups and pretend money. It was our own personal version of Memory, but we’d love to share it with you all. Just like any version of Memory, make sure to adjust it to match your child’s learning level. First I will give you an overview of the version we played and then I’ll give you some ideas for alternate ways to play.



First start with about 12 bathroom cups. In each pair of cups, put an equal amount of coins. For example, if one cup has 5 pennies, then the second cup should have a nickel. If one cup has a dime, the other cup could have 2 nickels, 1nickel and 5 pennies, or even 10 pennies. You can make any combinations you like, just make sure they are even.



Next, turn the cups over and mix up the pairs. The kids will then take turns picking up two cups to see if they have a match. I made my kids identify the coins and their values before they could pick up their second cup. If the values under the two cups are equal, they made a match and get to keep their pair. The person with the most matches wins!



To make it easier, have only one coin under each cup. Play like you would any other memory game, but work on either identifying the coin or its value (or both). To make it harder, add more cups or make the winner the person with the most money at the end. By adding this element, the kids will have to strategize on which cups they want to uncover and will have to practice adding up all their money in the end.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

My middle child was "learning disabled", meaning: she was a wholistic learner in a leanear teaching environment. School was such a challenge for her, especially in elementary, until she developed coping skills to learn the ciricula.

One year, going into grade five, she won the "Student of the Month" award in September. SHe had done math drills all summer long so as not to "forget" what she had learned the year before. OF couse, come October, she was back into the catch-up mode of her usual scholastic experience. The award was a HUGE boost to her self-esteem and really encouraged her.

BTW, she went on to graduating with two university degrees. :)

Amy said...

great game and ways for your children to learn..