Using Touch Dots to Count Money

Have you ever had a student that just STRUGGLED with counting money and you couldn't figure out what to do in order to help them?

Well, I have this child EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR. and I find that using Touch Dots to count money has helped my students every time (maybe I'm just lucky???). I truly believe in touch dots for counting money and for learning to add.

In my money unit, I have posters for using touch dots and a few practice sheets to get students used to counting and seeing the touch dots. My students love doing them!

When I first start teaching money, I always teach this Coins Poem first (you could use this video to teach your students the words and have a visual of each coin at the same time):

After teaching my students the coins (even though they should already know their coins), I then move on to teaching them how to add the coins up and use touch dots to count money.

In this short video below, you can learn how to use touch dots with your students to count money.

Now, for my students that already know how to count money by adding the coins together, I do not MAKE them use the touch dots. I usually do a little pre-assessment and a lot of informal observations on my students while teaching money the first few days to see which students I will MAKE use the dots.

I hope you enjoy this alternative way of counting money as much as I do!!!