Developed in partnership with Education Services Australia

The Australian Curriculum sets the goal for what all students should learn as they progress through their school life. Skills in the Foundation Year curriculum include:

• recognising a coin by its features
• understanding that the value of the coin is not related to its size
• knowing the value of individual coins
• beginning to count the value of a combination of coins.

It’s easy to help your child practise these skills as part of everyday life – just use these simple ideas.

Give coins

Once children work out what money is, they’re usually pretty interested in learning about it! Use their interest to help them get familiar with money:

• talk about how to tell the difference between coins – sizes, colours, pictures and numbers 
• ask your child to sort your change by size, then by value
• when you need small change, ask your child to help you find the right coins
• if your child wants you to buy something, ask them to work out what coins you need to pay for it. Is there a different combination that makes the same amount? For example, you can pay 80 cents with three coins (50c + 20c + 10c) or four coins (20c + 20c + 20c + 20c), or...
• let your child make their own play money by placing a piece of paper over a real coin, rubbing it with a pencil, then cutting out the paper coin.

Go online

For online reinforcement, Pay the Price will give your child practice at:

• choosing correct money
• comparing prices (Level 3 of the game – an optional challenge, beyond the expectation of this year level).

^{_[FYLearning]}