Introducing Money

I started off by using a familiar model... the base ten blocks.
I had the kiddos journal about what they thought each base ten model might represent.

We came to the consenses that a hundred block could be a dollar.
A dime could be a ten rod.
A ones cube could be a penny.

Then we discussed how we would show a quarter, or a nickel.

Then it was time to make our money books!

Money is a great way to tie in fractions, and decimal points to a concept they're already familiar with.

The kids did a great job with their money books and I hope they made connections between the shaded part of the grid, the decimal point, and the fraction.
We made special note of the way 1/10 and 10/100 was the same amount when we looked at our dime.