Over several weeks, the children have learned and continue to develop their understanding all about decimals – and a key element of this is with money.
Applying decimals to money is a very effective and powerful way to help children remember about the key elements within decimals and the parts of one whole. This follows on from a block about fractions.
To support this understanding, we get out the plastic coins and have a go at making different amounts, using decimals, partitioning them up and physically understanding the process of change. Less and less now we see actual money handled in shops and during transactions, so being able to have a go was very useful. Children generally retain some understanding of how to read money, calculate and total because they are more likely to see cash over using cards because of their age. They did a great job in looking at different ways to create set amounts, finding the smallest number of coins they could use or partitioning up whole pounds into multiple different formats.
It also helps understand what things actually cost – the value within a coin and how expensive or cheap things are.
Sadly for them however, it is all plastic!
