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Letter excerpt:

Family Letter

Dear Family Members,

During the week of <date> we will be starting a new math unit focused Problem Solving with Money. The purpose of this letter is to give you some background information about our new unit.

Focus of the Unit

Our goal in second grade is to solve word problems involving quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies within 99¢.  Students will also problem solve using whole dollar amounts.  They should also be able to use the ¢ and $ symbols appropriately.  During this unit, they will also be solving addition and subtraction word problems up to 100.

Building off Past Mathematics

In first grade, students identified quarters, dimes and nickels and related their values to pennies.  This unit builds upon this knowledge as students solve real-world problems involving money.

Strategies that students will learn

Students will spend some time reviewing coin names and values.  We will introduce conversions between and among coins, (ex: 5 dimes = 50¢ = 2 quarters).

Ideas for home support

Some students struggle with the names and value of the coins since the coin sizes are not proportional to their value.  Have your child practice identifying the coin names and their values. Your child may need extra support at home counting real coins up to 99¢.  Drawing on their prior knowledge of skip counting by 5s and 10s is helpful.  Another activity is “Ways to Make” (see the attached page). You can fill in at the top, Ways to Make 25¢.  In the circles, your child can place coins that equal 25¢.  They will discover several ways to make 25¢ (ex: 1 quarter, 5 nickels, 2 dimes and 5 pennies, 2 dimes and 1 nickel etc.).

Thank you for serving as partners in your child’s success as a mathematician!

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Ways to Make _____