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Count Collections of Pennies and Nickels

Students count the value of a collection containing pennies and nickels by skip-counting by 5s for nickels and then adding pennies by ones.

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Count Collections of Pennies and Nickels

Grade 2 · Money · question 1 of 3

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12 rungs. A star at the top.

The coin shown is worth ___ cents.

Count the coins.

How it is taught

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Count nickels by fives first.

Then count on the pennies by 1s.

Read it: Count on from the biggest

Priya has two quarters, a dime and a penny on a tray. Counting them as four cents is tempting. Start with the biggest coin instead.

  1. Start at the biggest coins: twenty-five, then fifty.
  2. Count on the dime from fifty: sixty.
  3. Count on the penny and name the total: 61c.

Counting four coins as four cents works if they are pennies, but it is wrong the moment a quarter is in the pile.

Two quarters make fifty at a glance, so you start from a number you already trust and only count on the small coins.

The dime adds ten and the penny adds one, so fifty, sixty, sixty-one is the money, not the number of coins.

Count on from the biggest coin; each coin adds what it is worth, not one.

Counting the four coins as four cents, because there are four of them.

A quarter is twenty-five, not one. Start at fifty, then sixty, then sixty-one.

A quarter is 25c, a dime 10c, a nickel 5c and a penny 1c. How many cents is 5c + 1c? — 6. Count on from the biggest: 5, 6.

3 nickels + 4 pennies

Let's count some coins! How much money is in this little pile?

We have three nickels — worth five cents each — and four pennies — worth one cent each.

Grade 2 · Skip-count nickels by 5s, then add pennies by 1s

Here's our trick: count the nickels first by fives, then add the pennies by ones.

First nickel — five cents.

Skip-count by five — ten cents.

One more five — fifteen cents.

Now the pennies, by ones. Sixteen.

Seventeen.

Eighteen.

Nineteen cents!

Three nickels and four pennies make nineteen cents. Nice counting!

Now you try. Add up these pennies and nickels. What is the total?

What you see

While they climb, your page writes one true line to ask about tonight, and a short note each Sunday.

MayaGrade 3 · Mathematics
Did you know?

A chessboard has 64 squares — share them out between the 8 rows and each row holds exactly 8.

Today’s goal
1 star — one skill mastered, every rung of its ladder climbed
Climbing now
Divide within 100

An example student.

MayaGrade 3 · Mathematics

Maya earned 2 stars this week — Interpret multiplication as equal groups, which took 6 answers over 3 days before its star landed 3 days ago and Multiply by 6, 7, 8 and 9. Next up: Divide within 100.

An example week.

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