Coin Activities
This week’s Smart Summer Challenge is Government Week. I did coin activities with my 3 year old to help him learn the names of the coins. Ever since Grandma bought him his own little coin bank, he is so into counting them, using them on his homemade number boards, and is so excited when we give him more to put in his bank!
As a fun little science experiment, we cleaned coins. All you need is baking soda and distilled white vinegar. To make it more age-appropriate for my son, I let him soak his coins first and stir them around. Then, he took a couple out at a time and rubbed the salt/vinegar mixture on each coin to clean them. Hop on over to Quirky Momma to see how her older kids learned about why their dishrags turned green.
After our coins were clean and shiny, we did coin rubbings. I placed paper over a coin and then rubbed it with the side of the pencil tip. My son thought it was so neat to see the coins magically appear! As an easier version for my 3 year old, I let him do the coin rubbings with the back end of a crayon (the flat part). I also helped him by putting my hand over his to guide him in the right spot. He really enjoyed this and wanted to do it again the next day!
My little guy LOVES to count and match so I knew this next activity would be perfect for him. I found these free coin printables over at SparkleBox. It shows what coins you need to make 1 cent all the way up to 20 cents. This really helped him to learn and remember the names of each coin.
See all our cool science experiments here!
I used LOVE rubbing coins. Was so much fun!! Love your coin activity post! Thanks for joining in at Kids Get Crafty! Maggy
I wonder how my kids would do with coin rubbings. I tried doing rubbings a while ago and they so weren’t ready for that, but it’s been a year or so, and they might be now……Thanks for linking up to Science Sunday!
Fun stuff! I love that your three year old is having fun with coins. I volunteered in my twins second grade classroom last year. Some of the kids didn’t know the names or values of coins half way through the year. I found your blog through the Smart Summer Challenge. I blog about teaching reading mostly. I’m a new follower.
there is a coin rubbing where you can make mount rushmore. have not tried it but it looks cute.
Where did you find those free printables of coins?
http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/maths/money/coins.html 🙂