Whether you are piecing together your own curriculum, adding to the curriculum you are already choosing, or are just looking for some materials to help teach your kids about Canadian money, there are tons of excellent resources out there to use.
One of the first things to do is teach your children to recognize the faces of various coins and then to connect those coins with their value. Fun ways to do this is through play. You can use real coins, paper sample coins that you cut out yourself, or play money.
Money Manipulatives
- Printable Paper Coins – from Outta the Lines Teaching. Pennies to Toonies. Laminate for long-term use, or cut and pasted as wanted.
- Learning Resources Canadian Currency-X-Change Activity Set
– Canadian play coins and bills. (affiliate link) [We LOVE this set in our house!]
Once your child is familiar with each coin and their value, the next step is to understand how they add up together and subtraction for change. Setting up a mini-store so your child can use money first hand is a great way for them experience handling money. Price things within whatever total limit you want and get them to “buy” stuff. For example, if you are working on only using dimes, nickels, and pennies – keep the prices under 20 cents for their purchases.
Games & Activities
- Count Your Coins – from Primary Teaching Resources. Game for two players to add up their coins and see who has the most money.
- Pirate Money Slap-It Game – from Emmy Mac Shop. Card game that you print out and call out money values while students try to find the matching coin cards.
- Canadian Money Dominoes – from Mandie Rose. Printable game of dominoes where you match denomination with coin.
- Race for a Dollar – from C Taylor. Board game to practice coin value and adding.
Online Games & Practice
- IXL.ca – review questions and exercises based on money for all grades
- Canadian Currency for Kids – a visual reference of each Canadian coin and bill from a penny to $100.
- Money Master – choose Canadian Currency and level of difficulty, then drag the coins into the box to create the requested total.
Videos
- Canada in my Pocket – song about the symbols on our money.
- Canadian Coin Song – catchy song about values of penny, nickel, dime, and quarter
- Canada Gets Rid of the Penny (Huzzah) – a little video about why and how Canada got rid of the pennies.
Worksheets and activity pages offer opportunities to practice using money in a variety of ways and scenarios without having to set things up.
Workbooks
- Canadian Money Activity Book – from Chalkboard Press. For Grades 1 – 4, worksheets and exercises
Worksheets
- Canadian Money Worksheets– from The Canadian Homeschooler. Printable sheets that cover coin names, values, adding and subtracting. (In the library.)
- Canadian Money Worksheets – from DTLK. Printable sheets that show examples and explanations of each coin in Canadian currency.
- Canadian Coins & Bills Worksheets – from Homeschool Math. Pre-made and make-your-own worksheets.
- Make-Your-Own Worksheets – just set the coin value to Canadian.
- Counting Canadian Coins – make your own worksheets
- Canadian Money – from The Third Grade Zoo. Applying the concept of money to a real-life experience – shopping! Also includes a game where you spin the spinner and add the coins.
- Primary Canadian Money Quiz – from Ms. Freeman. Short two-page quiz good for review or wrapping up a money unit study.
- Money Math – from S W. Simple worksheet for adding up coins.
- Regrouping using Canadian Money – from Diamond Mom. Using money to show, explain, and practice the concept of regrouping.
- Canadian Money Worksheets – from BrowniePoints. 6 worksheets, including matching coins to value, drawing coins, and adding coins.
- What’s in my Piggy Bank? – from Mrs. Brunetti. Adding coins to figure out what amount of money is in each piggy bank.
History of Coins
- History Timeline – from the Royal Canadian Mint. A timeline showing the changes to the Canadian coins from 1908 to today.
- Hands-On Canadian History: Money – Some activities you can to explore the way money has changed over time.
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What a great list! It’s always so much more difficult to find resources when you’re using Canadian money. Will be checking out many of these. 🙂
I was really impressed that there were so many resources out there about Canadian money! 😀
This will make a fun project for summer!
We live in America and I find my kids are facinated with “foreign money”.
So thankful to have found this website! Wonderful resources!!!
Very informative article. You mentioned much information in your article about Canadian money.
Thanks for sharing.
My sister just did not know about Canadian money. I’m gonna have these worksheets for you to read and study about the Canadian coins and dollars. Thank you!
My sister just did not know about Canadian money. I’m gonna have these worksheets for you to read and study about the Canadian coins and dollars. Thank you!