1st Grade Magic of Math Unit 9: Money & Personal Financial Literacy

Build a strong foundation in money and personal financial literacy with 1st Grade Magic of Math Unit 9! This two-week math unit helps students identify and understand the value of U.S. coins before applying their learning to important financial concepts such as earning, spending, saving, needs, wants, and charitable giving.

Students explore money through hands-on activities, coin models, math games, interactive practice, and real-world connections that make these important skills meaningful for young learners.

Week 1: Money

Students are introduced to U.S. coins and learn to identify coins, understand their values, and use counting strategies to determine the value of collections of coins.

Skills practiced include:

• Identifying pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters
• Recognizing the physical characteristics of each coin
• Identifying the value of each coin
• Understanding the relationship between coins and their values
• Counting collections of coins
• Using skip counting to determine the value of coins
• Representing money amounts with coins
• Applying addition and counting strategies when working with money

Week 2: Money & Personal Financial Literacy

Students connect their understanding of money to everyday financial decisions and begin developing important financial literacy skills.

Skills practiced include:

• Understanding ways people earn income
• Identifying the difference between needs and wants
• Understanding the purpose of spending and saving
• Identifying reasons people save money
• Understanding the concept of charitable giving
• Making simple choices about how money can be used
• Exploring responsible financial decisions
• Applying money concepts to real-world situations

What’s Included

• Detailed daily lesson plans
• Teacher mini-lesson materials
• Hands-on money activities
• Math games and partner practice
• Interactive notebook activities
• Coin posters and visual supports
• Student practice pages
• Word problem practice
• Assessments

This unit gives first graders meaningful opportunities to explore coins, money, and financial decision-making while building practical math skills they can connect to everyday life.