MAM Day 12: Money and change

It only took 12 days for me to talk about one of the most obvious examples of daily math! The next few days will be related to money and how we deal with it every day or almost every day.


Paying for goods, food, and services is a regular occurence. I would guess that everyone has to use money in one way or another daily, and if not daily weekly. We need money to survive, to make a living, to support ourselves and the people we care for.

How did we learn the language of money and currency? The American money units are easy enough, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and the dollar denominations. Younger children learn how to identify and associate certain coins with monetary values. As we continue to work with money, we learn how to hand over enough money to cover a lunch that costs $6.34. How do we know when we get the right change from a $10 bill? Simple math!


The majority of money math involves the basic math calculations, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and understanding decimals & percents. That's it! Easy enough, most students have a good sense of money math by middle school if not earlier.

I searched for a site on minting money and enjoyed the fun facts. Did you know that: "Thomas Jefferson liked to count by tens. Thomas Jefferson, honored on the current U.S. nickel, was the first person to back the use of the decimal money system that we use today." A few months back I watched a TV program on how they produce money and how money circulates through the economy. I also learned that a numismatist enjoy collecting coins.


Some of my favorite quarter designs for obvious reasons
Check back the rest of this week when I discuss other money related math including sales and discounts, savings accounts, and taxes!


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