Counting money, the way students learn it
Students first learn to name each coin and its value, then to count a handful of the same coin, and then to add mixed coins by starting with the one worth the most and counting on. The coins on every problem are sorted from biggest to smallest value to support that habit.
Size isn’t value
The dime is the smallest coin but worth more than the nickel, and the toonie is bigger than the loonie. The drawings keep the real proportions, so students notice that a coin’s size doesn’t tell its value, one of the first big ideas about money.
Provincial curriculum links
- BC K–1Kindergarten notices coin colours, sizes and pictures; Grade 1 names the values of nickels, dimes, quarters, loonies and toonies and counts groups of one coin.
- BC Grade 2–3Counting mixed coins to 100 cents in Grade 2, then coins and bills up to $100 in Grade 3.
- ON Grade 1–2Recognizing coins and bills and comparing their values, then showing one amount in different ways, such as coins that make $1.
- ON Grade 3Working out the change for simple purchases in whole dollars.
Both provinces tie money to real life. BC uses role-play buying and selling from Kindergarten, with talk about wants and needs, and Ontario adds ways to pay and good value in Grade 4.
Ontario’s Grade 2 includes combinations of loonies, toonies and bills that add up to $100, so the Coins and bills level, with $5 and $10 bills, fits there and in BC’s Grade 3.
Summarized in our own words from the BC Mathematics curriculum (K–3), Ontario’s overview of The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Mathematics (2020) and Government of Canada guidance on phasing out the penny.
