LESSON PLAN

Financial Literacy: Coins and Bills to $100

Apothem Team

Grade 3 · Number

LESSON AT A GLANCE

Warm-up

5 min

Explore

15 min

Consolidate

10 min

Practice

12 min

Exit ticket

3 min

Warm-up

Show a combination: 1 twenty-dollar bill, 1 ten-dollar bill, 2 loonies, 3 quarters. What is the total? Students calculate. Share strategies: largest denomination first. $20 +$ 10 + $2 +$ 0.75 = $32.75.

Explore

Classroom store with prices up to $100: students shop with a mixed money set, make purchases, and figure out if they have enough. A second challenge: make the same total using three different combinations of bills and coins. Record all combinations.

Consolidate

Practice

Students count 4 mixed bill-and-coin combinations, find 2 equivalent combinations for $25 and$ 50, and solve 2 savings-goal problems. Exit ticket: you earn $5/week and spend$ 2/week. How many weeks to save $24?

Exit ticket

TIP Use the sort-by-denomination-from-largest strategy consistently. This mirrors the positional value structure of our number system and builds a reliable, generalizable habit.

WORKED EXAMPLES

You have 2 twenty-dollar bills, 1 five-dollar bill, 3 toonies, 2 loonies. Total?

$40 +$ 5 + $6 +$ 2 = $53.

You earn

7 per week. Your goal is

49. You spend $1 per week. How many weeks to reach your goal?

Net saving: $7 -$ 1 = $6 per week. Time to goal:$ 49 / $6 = 8.17 weeks, so 9 weeks (since you need full weeks). After 8 weeks you have$ 48; after 9 weeks you have $54, which is enough.

MATERIALS

•Play money: bills and coins to $100

•Classroom store with prices up to $100

•Financial goal savings tracker sheets

•First Peoples trade game materials

•Payment method comparison cards

WATCH FOR

!Students may forget to apply the scale for bills (a

20 bill is not 20 cents). Always label: this is a twenty-dollar bill, worth

20.00.

!Students may not understand that credit means borrowing. Clarify: credit card spending is a loan that must be repaid, often with extra charges (interest).