Activity 4: Helping Casey with banknotes

Examine the interactive Australian banknotes noting the denomination of each banknote.

Ask students how they can tell the different banknotes apart. Discuss the following elements while studying real banknotes:

• length – each banknote is longer than the previous denomination
• colour – there is a strong contrast between each colour
• bold numerals.

Mention how these elements are also used by people with vision impairment to tell the banknotes apart.

Using real or toy banknotes and/or order the banknotes (NOTEBOOK 2MB), students arrange the banknotes in a line from the smallest to largest denomination.

Use a number line, hundreds square, MAB blocks or other concrete materials to view and create counting patterns. Practise counting by increments of 5, 10, 50 and 100 starting at 0 or counting on from another number.

Label five faces of a large die 5 dollars, 10 dollars, 20 dollars, 50 dollars and 100 dollars or use a digital die. Have a collection of toy banknotes. Students take turns to roll the die. They select and count banknotes and/or coins that are equivalent to the amount rolled. If they roll the blank face they select up to three banknotes and the class works out the total amount. The number sentence for the combination (e.g. 20 dollars + 20 dollars + 10 dollars = 50 dollars) could be verbalised and/or written. Encourage students to try a variety of combinations.

Students complete the equal to 20 dollars and equal to 50 dollars interactive activities and/or the
equal to 20 dollars (PDF 259KB) and equal to 50 dollars (PDF 263KB) worksheets using a number line, number square or other concrete materials where necessary.

Use items from the ‘play’ shop and/or check the payments (NOTEBOOK 2.1MB) and ask students for the exact cost of items.

Depending on the students' learning levels, you might wish to ask students to pay with larger amounts of money and calculate the change.

In the classroom assist students to share items equally between 2, 4 and 8 classmates. Ask students to identify the difference when a particular number of items are divided between different numbers of people. Discuss the sharing and introduce the terms halves, quarters and eighths.

Students take turns to be Casey and to be the workers as they role play Casey paying groups of 2, 4, or 8 workers equal amounts of money sharing out banknotes allocated by the teacher. Reinforce the concept of halves, quarters and eighths. Other students check to see that Casey shares equally and they take turns to say the number sentence for the calculation or the appropriate fraction.

Complete the share the banknotes activity (NOTEBOOK 1.2MB).