The primary lesson objective for students to learn about money is the value of coins. Children learn to identify coins with a number value and use values to count assorted coins to determine the collective values. Then teachers often ask children to compare one coin pile to another to show how different combinations of coins can be used to arrive at an equal amount. A child learns to use coins to show a determined numeric amount.
Nickels, dimes and quarters are used in lessons on skip counting. Children learn multiplication basics by counting up to a dollar by tens with dimes. Addition and subtraction are reinforced with money-counting lessons on mock purchasing and making change. Multiplication and division lessons are often directly taught with money in word problems asking how many coins of a certain denomination are needed to equal an amount, or how many are contained within an amount.
Each lesson on money is punctuated with the symbols associated with amounts of dollars and cents. Children are asked to use these symbols for the sake of differentiating amounts of money from other numeric amounts. Learning about money symbols also allows a child to look at prices posted in open marketplaces and understand the values notated. Students learn to notate dollar amounts, coin amounts and mixed amounts of dollars and cents with a decimal between.
Educators teach math with money by using it for displaying fractions. A child who learns to count four quarters to equal a dollar is easily able to identify 1/4 being one of four parts of the whole. Making exchanges with dollars and coins for equal values illustrates several various fractions. The decimal placed between dollars and cents is also commonly used for lessons on calculating problems with numbers on either side of a decimal point.