Our mother is a health nut! Consequently, Easter candy is a big NO! NO! Not that the grandchildren mind too much because Grandma’s money stuffed Easter eggs have become a long standing tradition. Many are stuffed with pennies but some are actually stuffed with a quarter. And then there’s the traditional big prize egg which will include dollars! The college kids are even known to tackle the little ones when it comes to the big prize egg. It’s all in fun. No one ever gets hurt!
After the hunt Miss Enigma’s and MacGyver’s eggs were dumped altogether. Setting the stage for a homeschool math investigation. I like giving the children Real World applications for their mathematics skills. Counting money is certainly a Real World life-skill. And counting your own money is certainly a motivating learning activity that stresses the importance of knowing how to count money.
Step 1 -Math Investigation Question: How much Easter money did we collect? How much money will we each get if we divide it equally?
Step 2 – Make an Estimate or Prediction: MacGyver quickly estimated that each would get several dollars since there were two silver dollars and quite a few quarters.
Step 3 – Investigate Question and Record Data:
- MacGyver began his investigation by sorting all of the coins.
- He divided his paper into sections to help him count the value of each set of coins.
- Since MacGyver is learning his multiplication facts, I suggested he use multiplication to find his totals.
- The pennies were very easy to multiply quickly.
- Since there were 37 nickles, the nickles were a bit trickier to count!
- MacGyver first grouped the nickles into groups of five, equaling 25 cents each.
- Next, he put four groups together equaling $1.00.
- Last he added the remaining 85 cents to the $1.00.
- Did you get all of that? It’s not important. What’s important is MacGyver had a plan and it worked!
- He thought the quarters were quite easy as he knew four quarters equal one dollar.
Step 4 – Record Final Solution: MacGyver determined each would receive $6.36 with a remainder of one nickle.
- MacGyver was quite concerned about the extra nickle because 5 cents cannot be divided equally.
- Mommy saved the day by kicking in an extra nickle. That’s what I’m here for: saving the day!
When I’m not busy saving the day, I’m busy turning every day activities into learning activities! I’m tricky that way.
Where was Miss Enigma all of this time? She was keeping herself busy with a little Kinesthetic Number Concepts.
Book of the Week GIVEAWAY: 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle
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