Coin Counting Practice: Eight Purses on One Page

Eight purses are packed onto this Grade 1 page — the longest sheet in the money family — with three to five coins in each and all four coin kinds in circulation. For every purse the child adds up the values and writes the total in cents in the box. The handfuls themselves are moderate and no two purses hold the same combination; it is the sheer number of purses that turns this page into a workout.

Volume is the whole design here. Coin counting improves the way any counting skill improves — through repetition spread out over time rather than crammed into one lesson — and eight purses on a single page give a child enough repetitions in one sitting for the routine to start running by itself: recognize the coin, put the biggest first, count on. It also makes an honest progress check across a term. Run the same page in September and again in January and the difference in speed is obvious to the child, not only to the teacher.

Print it free as a PDF and use it more than once, since the coins are generated fresh every time you download the sheet. Counting money with all the coins is the harder cousin, with bigger handfuls and quarters throughout, and counting coins first steps is the gentle entry point if eight purses feels like a lot.