Problems learning about money ks1

Do the children you teach have problems with money? When first introduced to money in the classroom, many children find it difficult to distinguish between the value of a pile of coins and the number of coins in the pile. These children may go on to find the concepts of equivalent amounts of money and giving change difficult to grasp. Let's look at the skills we need to enable us to understand money.

We have to know the names of the numbers, in the correct order. We have to be able to count objects accurately. We have to understand the connection between digits symbols and the value they represent. We have to understand the concepts of addition grouping things together and subtraction splitting things apart.

We have to understand that objects can have a value, which is irrespective of their colour, shape, size, mass, etc. By the time children are introduced to 'money' in Year 1 most will have the first two skills, at least up to ten. Some may have acquired the third skill, the fourth skill will be being taught to them, and the fifth skill will probably be the last they comprehend. Many children would prefer to record the numbers iconically e.

The use of digits was not widely used until about the age of seven or eight. Addition and subtraction It was also found that even very young children could accurately combine small groups of bricks and say how many there were altogether without recounting them, two bricks and three more bricks - there are five bricks.

However their ability to manipulate figures and to make sense of addition and subtraction signs in order to record the 'transactions' they had performed was poor, if it existed at all. Not one child in the study spontaneously used a plus or minus sign to represent addition or subtraction.

In other words, although they could completely comprehend what they had been doing, they had no way of storing the information on paper, or 'reading' what another person may have 'written' to explain the 'transactions'. Value In everyday situations children will generally have come across things having a 'one-to-one' correspondence; dots on the dice equal jumps on the game board, one plate for each person at the table, etc.

Money, Maths, Key Stage 1 - Interactive Whiteboard Resources - Topmarks

The concept of a monetary value of an object is not one with which most young children are familiar. If a child wants a new toy, for example, the depth of desire for the toy is of much greater importance than its cost. Some children may have exchanged a five or ten pound note for a toy in a toy shop, but the reason for their receiving 'a penny change' will be beyond the scope of their mathematical ability and would probably pass as an insignificant puzzle. With luck some children will have been allowed to buy sweets or a comic in the local newsagents, and will have been able to hand over the coins themselves.

Here, providing the amount of money is at about the 10p level, the arithmetic may well be within the scope of the child and can provide a very valuable 'lesson in money'. However, this is likely to be the limit of a child's use of money. A class shop can be seen as an opportunity for children to use money, and buy and sell objects. However, unless play in the class shop is supervised by the teacher or a classroom helper, the accuracy of any monetary exchanges is likely to be nil.

The use of vocabulary relating to money will also be very limited. The words 'coin' and 'change' are rarely used or understood by young children. Vocabulary may even be used ambiguously by adults talking to children.

An adult might say, 'I've brought you some pennies. To understand exactly what a 2p coin represents we have to have mastered two of the skills in the list above connecting digits with the value they represent, and understanding that value may be independent of physical properties.

We have to understand that the '2' on the coin means two pennies and that this is the same as having two single penny coins, or two coins with '1' on them. When we introduce 2p coins to Year 1 children we are making the assumption that these skills have been acquired. If they have not as the research would suggest we are most probably about to introduce confusion to the child as well.

Avoiding confusion How can we avoid the confusion? Well, if one problem is that a 2p coin has no intrinsic 'twoness' about it, why don't we start with something that does?

It is true that a 2p is larger than a 1p and may 'reveal' its greater value in that way, but a 5p coin is smaller than both of these so the analogy cannot be carried very far.

Suppose we start children off with 'pre-money coins' or tokens that indicate their value in a way more acceptable to young children than by putting digits on them. Simply use tokens that are marked with one dot if it stands for a value of one, two dots for a value of two, five dots for a value of five, etc.

In this way we will be able to talk about holding a number of dots something the children can see and quantify , rather than a number of pence which is an unfamiliar and abstract quantity. Further, we should be able to combine and separate groups of dots, and be able to compare their 'value' by physically counting the dots displayed on the tokens.

The Puzzling Sweet Shop : irexapezoren.web.fc2.com

In other words a group of tokens will be worth ten dots whether they are arranged. The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners.

Money Word Problems

To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice. More information on many of our other activities can be found here.

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