Flea Market Math

Today in math, we warmed up our math-money brains by trying to come up with as many ways of making $1.00 as possible. Most children could come up with about 7 in the 5 minutes allotted. The students were surprised to learn that there are actually 293 ways! Wow! This would be a good thing to work on at home, if you and your child are interested - and a way to solidify concepts of coin values and counting piles of change.

After that warm up, we started to price some items for our upcoming Flea Market Math activity. Don't forget, it will be on Tuesday, November 22 (one week from today). Here is the email that I sent this weekend:

The first and second graders have been practicing their money skills recently. Elaine, Marshall and Susan would like to reward all their hard work by having a "flea market" day. This is how it will work:

Starting Monday, please bring in unwanted junk. This should include cheesy McDonald toys, little hot wheel cars, plastic jewelry/trinkets - you get the idea. Clean out those toy chests and closets!  The more stuff we collect, the more fun the activity is. We will price all items between 1 - 25 cents.

On Tuesday, 11/22, we will have our flea market! Each child should bring in a $1.00 bill and a shopping bag. I will draw names, and each person in turn will get the opportunity to purchase one favorite item. After the most desired items are purchased, then additional turns will be given until everything is gone.

Questions? Don't hesitate to ask!

The 1^st/2^nd Grade Math Team

P.S. This is a good opportunity to practice counting piles of coins and making change! We've been working on it in school, too, but a little role-playing at home will be excellent preparation for the big day!