Are you looking for strategies to help students who have trouble solving math problems involving money? If so, keep reading.
1. Split the basic addition and subtraction facts into sets to be memorized by the student.
2. Give an assortment of restaurant menus for the student to choose things for a meal. Get them to compute the cost of the things.
3. Select a peer to work with the student every day practicing coin values, paper money values, money combinations, etc.
4. Get the student to use a calculator to reinforce solving problems involving money. Get the student to solve several money problems each day using the calculator.
5. Get the student to earn a hypothetical income and solve money-related math problems. The difficulty level of the problems should match the student’s capacity and ability level (e.g., taxes, social security, savings, rent, food, clothing, auto payments, recreation, etc.).
6. Get the student to match equal values of bills (e.g., five one-dollar bills to a five-dollar bill, two five-dollar bills to a ten-dollar bill, etc.).
7. Get the student to match equal values of coins (e.g., two nickels to a dime, two dimes and a nickel to a quarter, five nickels to a quarter, etc.).
8. Get the student to talk through money math problems as they solve them to find errors they are making.
9. Create a series of games that involve solving problems using money. Start off will simple problems and them escalate to more difficult ones.
10. Give the student a newspaper or a catalog. Get them to make a list of things advertised that they would like to purchase and then determine the total cost of the things they selected.
11. Give the student real money to simulate transactions in the classroom (e.g., purchasing lunch, groceries, snacks, clothing, etc.). Get the student to practice acting as both a customer and a clerk.
12. Teach the student to count by ones, fives, tens, twenties.
13. Teach the student to count by pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars.
14. Teach the student to recognize all the coins (e.g., penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half-dollar).
15. Consider using Alexa for the Math Classroom.
16. Try gamifying your math lessons.
17. Consider using one of the apps and tools from our many math app lists:
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