Grade 4 has a new update for our young learners! We’re excited to introduce Module 6, Topic E: Representing Money Amounts in the Standard Way!

In these new tasks, Grade 4 students review their knowledge of American currency and then explore the standard way of representing money amounts with decimal numbers and the appropriate notation. Soon, children are using their new knowledge to solve word problems with money! 

Students catch up with our virtual friends as they prepare for an exciting day at the fair. Before they set off on this adventure, though, our pals need to count up their money to see how much they have to spend. To help them, students identify each different type of coin by their size and color from assorted groups.

Next, students review the values of the different coins and how many cents a dollar bill is worth.

They use their knowledge of these values to calculate the total of a dollar bill and several coins. 

The next step in helping our fair-visiting friends is learning how to convert different money amounts to decimal numbers. Students take values written in cents only and rewrite them as their decimal equivalents.

Unfortunately, our friends are quickly spending all of their money on fair games! They need the students’ help to keep track of their spending! Students are introduced to the standard way of writing money: adding a dollar sign in front of the decimal number.

Students also learn that the standard way of writing money includes two decimal places, even if the last number is a zero.

Our friends end up needing to work to earn some extra money for buying treats! Our students help out by rewriting amounts in dollars and cents as dollars in decimal form. As they play some midway games with our fair-going friends, they continue practicing writing money amounts in the standard way, combining all that they’ve learned so far.

Students continue working on these skills by rewriting values given as cents only in the standard way, which requires them to convert each group of 100 cents into one dollar. Adding the correct decimal form of the remaining cents completes the task! The scaffolding of these conversions slowly recedes until students are translating values in cents to the standard way directly.

Students soon progress to working with money operations. First, they practice adding two money amounts using column addition. They quickly discover how the different columns of the addition equation relate to dollars and cents. They find that the same applies to column subtraction.

Our fair-going friends have finally earned some money selling candy apples and making balloon animals as fair workers, and now they’re ready to spend it at the gift shop! Students solve word problems involving money operations to help them total their earnings first.

In subsequent levels, children use diagrams to solve word problems that require subtracting money. Then, they have additional practice using column subtraction to solve similar problems.

The culminating task gives students their greatest challenge yet: completing two-step word problems with money. Students must complete two operations: finding the total amount spent and subtracting that total from the original amount to find what’s left. Again, students receive support in the form of a diagram and step-by-step scaffolding.

Once they’ve solved this challenging problem, Grade Four, Module 6, Topic E is complete! And, our friends leave the fair with a new understanding of money and some prizes in tow.

For Students: The fair scenario gives children an authentic application of their growing money skills, teaching them to spend wisely while also solidifying their understanding of how to write money amounts. 

For Teachers: This update helps teachers ensure that their students have a secure understanding of the values of different currencies by providing a review of American coins and dollars. The engaging storyline gives word problems and operations with money essential context. 

The Happy Numbers Team is here to support you on your continuing math journey. If we can assist you in any way, with this new topic or others, please reach out to us at support@happynumbers.com. We hope your students enjoy their trip to the fair!