Coin Caterpillars

I read about coin caterpillars at one of my  favorite blogs Deceptively Educational. I liked the idea of having my son make his own coin caterpillars. So I drew the face and had him pick out a few coins to line up and trace. He then wrote the value of each coin on a line directly under the circle. He wrote on the final line the value of all coins, but covered it with a small sticky note. Then he quizzed me, to see if I got the same answer.  I'd say that he is doing amazingly well with counting mixed coins!

If your child is just learning to count money, I would make caterpillars with coins of just one type (i.e. all pennies or all dimes). When first introducing mixed coins I would leave out quarters at first.

Check out the post at Deceptively Educational to see how she made cute caterpillars with pipe cleaners. Her suggestion of using a hundreds chart would be helpful if your child is just starting with counting coins.

http://deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/2011/07/counting-money-with-coin-caterpillars.html

Also check out Miss Kindergarten for more info and a free printable at:
http://misskindergartenlove.blogspot.com/2011/07/coin-caterpillars.html

Lemonade Stand

It's an annual tradition at our house to have a lemonade stand and yard sale. I love to see how the kids have changed in these pictures and how our set up is getting better!

June 2009 - my son's first lemonade stand!

May 2010 - who wouldn't want to buy lemonade from this sweet boy? And little sis is trying to help!

Next Saturday (7/23) we are going to have our annual yard sale & lemonade stand and I hope my local friends can make it!

To prepare (and to get a bunch of coin counting practice) we are going to set up a lemonade stand in our basement this week. We have decided to expand our selection and sell cookies and rice crispy treats.

My son has mastered counting like coins (i.e. all dimes, all nickels, or all pennies) but is still learning how to count quarters. So to get extra practice, everything we sell will either be 25, 50, or 75 cents. This will give him lots of practice counting quarters and making change from a dollar.

After our big sale I will post an updated picture and tell you about all the profit!!!

As a bonus, I found some cute free printables to make our stand look even better than before! Get some for yourself here:
http://onecharmingparty.com/2011/07/05/diy-lemonade-stand/