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