Money Smart Week: Money Madness for Grades K-6

Like a lot of other libraries, my library recently participated in the national Money Smart Week initiative. One new addition to this year's money themed programming is a program for Grades K-6 that I called "Money Madness". It gave us an opportunity to collaborate with our local bank, teach a little about money, and shower the kids with some money related swag (from the Money Smart Week people and our local bank).

The format of this program was simple: A brief discussion of money and saving (led by representatives of our local bank), followed by a series of money related stations. I tried to include a variety of activities to suit the children's interests and age range. We had 20 kids come, which is pretty good attendance for us.

Bank on It

One of the stations we did was a game I found at Oceans of First Grade Fun. The idea is to roll dice and fill in coins on the piggy bank corresponding to each dice roll. Very easy because the only prep I had to do was print off the provided printable and take some dice from our library's collection of board games.

Coin rubbings

I provided the kids with paper, pencils, crayons and coins and instructed them to make coin rubbings. I also gave them some aluminum foil to create 3D coin rubbings. This is a great way to get the kids familiar with the different coins in a fun way. It also has the side benefit of adding a little art to program as well.

Aluminum Foil Boats

This classic activity has always been well received any time I've done it with kids in the past. It is a great way to teach kids a little about bouyancy, weight and other scientific concepts. The twist this time was that instead of real coins we used fake plastic money I bought at my local dollar store. The real money probably would have been the better choice, because the fake money was pretty light and floated just a little too easily.

Heads or Tails

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

The idea for this activity came from a compilation of ideas given to me by the Money Smart Week coordinators. The way it worked is to put a group of different type coins into a cup and have the kids use the cups to do a coin toss. They must then determine how many heads came up, how many tails came up, and the value of each. To record I made up this sheet. As they played the game the kids has the opportunity to practice counting, coin value, and addition.

In addition to these stations I had printables available. A color by coin worksheet was definitely a hit with the older attendees, while a design your own money template was a little less popular.

All in all, this program seemed to go pretty well. Any opportunity to work with another local organization is a win in my book. I hope to find other ways to collaborate with this bank in the future. Any ideas you can suggest are always greatly appreciated!