Teaching is so much easier if you get kids singing and moving. My students always loved this little Money Rap. It’s just the ticket for teaching coin denomination. Use a rap cadence and have fun with it. Follow up by using actual coins while singing the rap.
The Money Rap
Well, I know a song, it’s really kind of funny,
It’s all about coins and learning to count money.
Chorus: Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
Now a penny means one (hold out 1 finger)
And a nickel means five (hold out 5 fingers)
Dimes are worth ten (hold out 10 fingers
Quarters twenty five (flash 10 twice and then 5)
Five pennies in a nickel (1 hand fingers stretched)
Two nickels in a dime (hold out 2 fingers)
Five nickels in a quarter (1 hand fingers stretched)
You’ll know it every time.(downward motion both hands)
Five pennies make a nickel, Two nickels make a dime
Two dimes and a nickel, make a quarter every time.
Four quarters make a dollar and that is quite a lot,
And a dollar in my pocket is exactly what I’ve got.
June 30, 2010 Comments Off
I ran across this silly video and thought it demonstrates how learning takes place with audio and kinesthetic learners. As you know, audio learners must speak or sing the information aloud to remember it. Kinesthetic learners need to get their bodies involved and moving. When I teach zero times any number, I use this same idea. The zero is round and looks like a mouth. And what does a mouth do? It eats things. In fact when you are multiplying zero times any number, that hungry mouth gobbles up the other number and nothing is left except the mouth (0). Make it into a game to see who can write the largest number and then gobble it up so all that is left is zero.
In my multiplication system I used “Sticky Gum” for “one times any other number.” When you chew a stick of gum it gets very sticky and when it touches (or is multiplied) by another number, it sticks to that other number. So 1 x 5 = 5. The gum stuck to the five. This could be put to song similar to the sticky gum song in the video. In place of it getting stuck to the nose or face, it could get stuck to numbers. Children are memorizing while having fun singing and clapping!
February 23, 2010 Comments Off