Samantha Becker

Unit essential questions: Students will add sums of money equaling under 5$ using a variety of
methods.
Lesson question: What are two different methods that students can use when adding coins and
bills together to find the sum?
Common Core or other appropriate standard:
Grade 2:
Measurement and Data
Work with time and money
Lesson objective:

Assessment:

Students will add coins that they will be given

in three different bags.

Students will be given a treasure inventory

sheet to show their answers for three different
bags of money.
Students will complete a worksheet where they
have to add sums of money together.

Students will add two sums of money.

Opening: I will begin the lesson by having the students complete a scavenger hunt of the room.
They will be acting as pirates who are in search of buried treasure because they need to fix their
ship and buy supplies. Hidden within the room will be 9 bags of money that the students will
have to locate and put into our treasure chest.
Procedure:
Students will be grouped into three groups by ability level. They will be given three bags of
money in each group.
- The blue group will have just coins in each bag.
- The green group will have bags with a handful of coins and bills that they will need to
add.
- The red group will have bags full of different color chips that they will have to use a code
to decipher.
Students will be given a pirate inventory sheet where they will record their answers. The bags
will correspond to specific questions on the sheet. For example the triangle on the sheet for the
green group will mean the green bag with the triangle around the $ is the bag needed to fill that
answer. The classroom aide and I will walk around between the groups to help students with this.
Students will complete one bag at a time then pass the bag to the person on their right so that
they can answer all the questions on their sheet. For this students will count the money as they
look at the coins, 25 cents plus 1 cent is 26. Or students will group specific coins together so that
they can count it easier, 5 plus 5 plus 5.
Once the groups are finished with their work the groups will each be given worksheets
specific to their groups. On these sheets will be addition problems that the students will add

using a traditional addition method, 2.11+1.02=. The amounts of money will represent the totals
of the bags given to the groups. The students will complete the sheet then we will share the
answers as a class and determine how much loot we have in our treasure chest.
Tiered by __Challenge__: (product, challenge, complexity, resources, outcome, or process)
3 different tiers
The students who struggle the most with the topic will have only a few coins to work
with so that it is more about basic knowledge.
The middle group of students will have a more challenging amount of money that
includes bills as well as coins to show their comprehension.
The final group of students will use a key to identify the value of specific color chips
prior to adding the money together. This is more at the analysis level.
Closure:
Students will create a list of items that they think a pirate could buy with the amount of
money that they found. I will have a list of items and fake prices to help the students compile the
list. Students will also have to prioritize what items they should buy first.
Materials:
Bags of money
6 different work sheets
Key for the red group
Poster of supplies for the closure
Treasure chest