Description

What our Money: Nickel lesson plan includes

Lesson Objectives and Overview: Money: Nickel teaches young learners about the US five-cent coin. Students will be able to recognize a nickel, describe its color, and understand that it is worth 5 cents. This lesson is for students in preschool.

RUBBING NICKELS ACTIVITY

Place 2 to 3 nickels on the table and, if desired, tape them down with double-sided tape to prevent them from sliding. Lay a sheet of white paper over the nickels. Say, “We are going to make the nickels appear like magic!” Give students a crayon or chalk and show them how to hold it sideways. Help them gently rub the crayon back and forth across the paper, placing it on top of the nickels. Watch as the outline of the nickels appears on the paper. Say, “Look! The nickel is showing up!” Encourage students to keep rubbing until all the nickels are revealed. Repeat the process with different colors to make a nickel rubbing collage.

Options and Extensions

There are several of additional options you could add to the lesson. Read the poem to the class. Give students a small pile of coins and help them sort the different ones. Give students playdough or clay and let them press a nickel into the playdough to make impressions. For sensory fun, set up a bin with cloud dough or kinetic sand and have students dig for nickels. Set up a small classroom shop where everything costs a nickel. Have students buy items using real nickel. Make sure the items are priced appropriately to teach the value of a nickel.

Nickel Stack Challenge: See how many nickels students can stack before the pile tumbles! Great for motor skills and counting practice. Color or decorate the nickel coloring page from Additional Resources. Use the enlarged nickel from Additional Resources to create a simple puzzle. Cut the nickel into three to five jagged pieces and let students reassemble it.

As an extension to the lesson, read the following books:

• A Dollar, A Penny, How Much and How Many? by Brian P. Cleary
• Money, Money, Honey Bunny! by Marilyn Sadler
• If You Made a Million by David M. Schwartz
• The Coin Counting Book by Rozanne Lanczak Williams

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Our preschool lessons include additional resources that you can use throughout the lesson. They are provided to give you as much content as possible to complete the lesson without having to find sources on their own. For instance, if the lesson requires you to show students pictures, you can use the ones in the additional resources.

Preschool Philosophy

Our preschool curriculum is thoughtfully designed by professional teachers to nurture curiosity, build foundational skills, and prepare young learners for kindergarten and beyond. Each preschool lesson plan offers age-appropriate activities to promote early literacy, math readiness, creativity, and social-emotional growth.

At the preschool level, children are developing rapidly—socially, emotionally, physically, and academically. The goal of our lesson plans for preschool is to provide structured yet engaging learning experiences that spark imagination, encourage problem-solving, and foster a lifelong love of learning.

CURRICULUM FOCUS

Our curriculum focuses on key objectives such as:

• Building early literacy and language skills through stories, songs, and interactive activities.
• Developing number sense, shapes, colors, and patterns with hands-on lessons.
• Encouraging creativity and self-expression through art, play, and music.
• Supporting social-emotional development, cooperation, and confidence.
• Strengthening fine and gross motor skills through active learning.