Game: Teaching Kindergartners about Coin Values

Passing this on from an idea presented on the Workboxes E-mail Loop:
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Skills: Identifying coin values and coin equivalencies; addition; counting coin amounts.

Materials: Real or Play Money; at least 4 quarters, 2 nickels, 3 dimes and 5 pennies PER PLAYER. One or Two dice

Setup: Place all coins in a pile in the middle of the playing area (table, carpet, etc).

Play: Begin play with the youngest child and proceed in a clockwise manner. On a players turn, he rolls the die or dice and takes from the pile the amount of money indicated on the dice using the fewest coins possible. If the player already has coins in his own pile, he must determine if he can make an exchange: 5 pennies for 1 nickel from the pot; 2 nickels for one dime from the pot; 2 dimes and one nickle for a quarter from the pot. When all exchanges have been made, play passes to the next player.

Winning: The first player to reach $1.00 wins.

Play this game beginning with only pennies and nickles. Then graduate to pennies, nickles and dimes. Finally, you can add quarters to the mix. You can add half dollars and gold dollars and bills as well, but you'll have to increase the winning amount too.

Instead of using dice, you could use playing cards to determine the number of coins taken. Of you could use more than three dice to foster addition concepts.