Show Me the Money!

This week, first grade at Oak Hill has been learning about money.  We have mastered identifying pennies, nickels, and dimes, we have mastered the value of each coin, but what we are having a hard time with is counting money and exchanging coins with the same value.  

Last week, I was determined to find a new app to use with my struggling first graders to practice counting and exchanging money.  I was nervous that I wouldn't find one, and after a few searches I turned up empty handed.  Finally, I found an app called "Little Matchups Counting Money" that is like a card matching game.  Two or three cards are displayed on each side of the iPad screen.  On each card is a different amount of money shown using only pennies, nickels, or dimes. 

The objective is for the student to count how much money is on each card on the left side of the screen, and match it to the money card that contains the same value on the right side of the screen.  This is a great app for the students I am working with because they have a hard time identifying that a different selection of coins can have the same value.  For example, two nickels have the value of ten cents AND one dime has the value of ten cents AND ten pennies has the value of ten cents.  By having the student count the coins on each card then match the cards that have the same value was a great way for them recognize that the same amount of money can be represented using a number of coins.  The students really enjoyed using this app, and I enjoyed watching them succeed at counting money. 

We also used Doodle Buddy (of course) to practice word problems.  I would type a word problem on the screen, and the student would draw the coins that can be used to represent the different amounts of money.  Yet again, I have found a different use for Doodle Buddy, it is by far my favorite app so far.  

Doodle Buddy

I love the Doodle Buddy app.  I love it for so many reasons.  It is so versatile, you can use it for just about any purpose you need it for.  You can take screenshots after you have used it to save the content you have been working on, or if you are finished with the work and are ready to erase, you simply shake your iPad and the screen will erase for you.

This week, we worked on identifying equations to 10 where students had to know 11 different math facts that equaled 10.  They were expected to identify missed addends in equations without any hesitation.  The best way to practice this skill is repetition and practice so they have the facts memorized.  I used Doodle Buddy (of course) to collaborate with the students and recreate the anchor chart that we had previously made as a whole class.  On one side of the Doodle Buddy screen, I wrote 5 different math facts that added up to 10, with the first addends in descending order from 10.  We then talked about patterns that we noticed, and from there, the students wrote the missing equations in different colors. This helped the students to recognize that if you know 5 of the equations, then they automatically know 10 because they addends are just reversed.

I also found a neat tutorial for how to save images as a picture on an iPad, and then transfer the image to the Doodle Buddy App to use as a picture.  I am definitely going to play around with this to practice with literacy skills or word problems.  I can't wait to see if this works!



Next week, we work with money using only pennies, nickels, and dimes.  I am looking for an app where  students can practice identifying the different coins, as well as counting and exchanging pennies, nickels, and dimes.  I know I can always fall back on using Doodle Buddy, but I would really like to branch out and find a fun game for them to practice to ease their frustration of having to work so hard all day.