Explore Money with Preschool Coin Sorting Fun

Exploring money with preschoolers is fun with these preschool coin sorting activities. Preschool math is fun when you use real money!

Young children (okay, even older ones) are excited about coins. I remember when my youngest would find a penny on the sidewalk and declare, “I’m riched!”

I also remember how difficult it was to convince her that a dime is better than a nickel (worth more) even though it’s smaller in size. She equated size with value.

Preschool Coin Sorting Fun

If you’re working on teaching money, specifically teaching preschoolers to identify coins or teaching kindergarteners the value of each coin, then you’ve come to the right place!

This set of coin-themed worksheets and printable activities are going to be the perfect addition to your preschool and early years math centers.

These low-prep activities will get your young learners excited to learn about coins.

What You’ll Need

• Coin Sorting printables (shared below)

• laminator (this is the one I use) and laminating film (here’s the brand I like)

• scissors

• glue or glue sticks

• coins (real or plastic)

Setting It Up

I suggest printing the coin cards, sorting cards, and coin puzzles on cardstock. This makes the pages sturdier. You can take it one step further and laminate them before cutting them apart. This makes the pages more durable if you use them in a classroom setting or want to save for younger siblings.

To Teach the Lessons

Introduce each coin (penny, nickel, dime, and quarter) with the smaller cards. Compare the images to your real and/or plastic coins. Point out distinguishing features – the dime and quarter have the coin name on them, the penny is brown, the nickel and penny have their value written on the back, etc.

Place a handful of coins in a small cup or bowl. Have your students sort them on the coin sorting cards. For beginners, you may want to prep the activity by placing one of each coin on the cards to provide an example. Then, have your little ones sort the rest of the coins.

Assessing the Lesson

Check the sorting cards to make sure your child has sorted the coins correctly. Then, have your child complete the coin matching page. On this page, students will draw a line from each coin to its value.

The cut and paste page has students cutting out and pasting images of the coins (front and back) and their value next to the correct coin name. For beginners, you may choose to let them use the teaching cards as a reference before they actually glue the pieces on the page.

Additional Activities

This printable pack includes two additional activities. One is a set of handwriting practice pages. There are four pages, featuring each of the four coins featured in this lesson. Students will practice tracing the letter each coin begins with and its name.

On the graphing practice page, students will cut and paste coins into the graph. Then, they’ll count how many of each coin are on the graph. To extend this lesson, you can discuss more and less, count the value of each column (if your kids are ready for skip counting), and which column equals one dollar.

I hope these preschool coin sorting activities help your child learn to identify coins and their values. If you would like to incorporate some living books into your lesson, I recommend these. You can find them at your local library, or you can order them on Amazon by clicking the links below.

• One Cent, Two Cents, Old Cent, New Cent: All About Money – THE CAT IN the Hat puts to rest any notion that money grows on trees in this super simple look at numismatics, the study of money and its history.

• Bennies Pennies – Benny McBride starts his day with five new pennies and is determined to spend them all. His mother wants him to buy something beautiful. His brother wants something good to eat. His sister wants something nice to wear. Benny knows his dog and cat would like something too. With the help of generous and thoughtful neighbors, Benny fulfills each request with a penny and arrives home loaded with five simple gifts.

• The Coin Counting Book – Counting, adding, and identifying American currency from one penny to one dollar is exciting and easy.

More Hands-On Money Fun

• Learning Resources Play Money Coin Set – Includes 30 pennies, 20 each of nickels, dimes, and quarters, and 4 half-dollars

• Money Match Me Cards – 2-sided cards feature photos of coins (pennies to half-dollars) in sets with values up to 75¢