IN THE CLASSROOM -- Show them the money

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT BEACH -- His face turned red, he leaped off the carpet and a

grin split 6-year-old Connor Legget’s face.

“Yes,” Connor exclaimed, after hearing that the coin his teacher was

holding up was indeed a quarter.

Never have I seen a child so excited to answer a question. I think he

thought he was going to be able to keep the coin if he answered

correctly.

“I’ll trade you two of these for your 25 cents,” said Marge Newman,

Connor’s first-grade teacher at Mariners Elementary School, holding up

two dimes. “Would you trade with me?”

Connor chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully.

“No,” he finally blurted out, clutching his quarter.

Newman was teaching her young charges about money.

“Money is so hard for these kids,” she confided. “They’ve moved things

up an entire grade. They used to do this in second grade.”

And so while half the class completed work sheets at their desks, she

gathered the rest around her in a small group.

One at a time, Newman held up different coins, asking their name and

how much they were worth.

This went OK. Then it was time to put out 15 cents. That was a little

tricker for some children.

I had to chuckle when she pointed out the tricky nickel business. That

being, of course, that the worth of coins is not reflected in their size,

even though the quarter is the largest. I remember being perplexed as a

child as to why they made the dime smaller than the nickel.

Newman also tried to show them tricks to counting money, although some

resisted and wanted to do it their own way. She tried to tell them to put

the coins in piles of 10 and then count them up.

But 6-year-old Molly Anderson was certain her method was best. She

started with the dimes -- 10, 20, 30. Then she counted the quarter on her

fingers -- by ones. Then went on to count the nickels and pennies.

I found myself holding my breath through the counting of the quarter,

willing her not to lose her place on a single coin.

But she made it all the way through -- phew.

She lost count, however, on the very next coin, a nickel, and started

all over -- 10, 20, 30.

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a campus within the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District and writes about her experience.