When teaching a child how to exchange nickels for dimes, it is important to use real money so that a child can make the exchange himself. A child will have an easier time remembering the concepts in a real life situation if he is using the same money that he did in class. Try not to use fake money too often, because a child may have trouble generalizing the concepts of exchange to real money.
It is important to generalize the concepts of exchange to as many situations as possible. For example, ask a student what she would do if she wanted a gumball, but the machine only accepts quarters and she has nickels. Teach the child that she can exchange her nickles for a quarter. Help her count the nickels until she understands that she will need to exchange five nickels for a quarter in order to get her gumball.
It takes a lot of practice for a child to master the concepts of money exchange. Play bank to help students get that practice. Run the bank. Have the student roll a dice; the number on the dice is the number of pennies he will collect from the bank. When the student reaches five, he should say "exchange," and switch the five pennies in to the bank for a nickel. When the student has two nickels, he should exchange them for a dime. Continue playing, and help the student move up in denominations. When the student exchanges all his coins for a dollar bill, he has won the game.
Teach children that they can exchange money for objects at the store, and that this is called making a purchase. Play store. Have one student be the cashier and another child be the buyer. Make up prices and determine what coins the students will use, depending on the students' needs. If the child needs to work on exchanging dimes and nickels for quarters, for example, then give the child only dimes and nickels.