Coin Patterns

Dragon is weak with patterns, and I thought it would be good to practice identifying money while we practiced the patterns. Turns out that combines two tricky tasks and makes for a very challenging activity.

We aren't worrying about value, yet, just working on correctly naming the various coins. They've been making buckets of new coin designs while I wasn't paying attention, so it turns out that just identifying the coins is a tougher job than it used to be, and the motley collection from our coin jar includes some coins that are spectacularly dirty. But that's life, so I didn't fuss about it. 

We tried a growing pattern the other day, and it proved terribly challenging, so this time we just stuck with repeating patterns. 

Nickel-nickel-penny.  That was the first one. Nope. That's a dime. There are no dimes in my pattern. Nickel-nickel-- What's next? Good. Do it again; I need you to make a second group for this pattern. 

The second one was easier: we had a pattern almost just like it earlier this week.  

Here is a penny pattern. Add two more groups to my penny pattern. No, that's a dime; there are no dimes in my penny pattern. Good. Here's another penny pattern. Make two more groups for my penny pattern. No, don't add to my rows, make your own. Watch out; those aren't pennies. This row is good, but that one has a dime. Try again. 

He was scattered and distracted, but he got there. 

Considering how tricky he found this, I have a feeling that we'll be making more coin patterns next week. Identifying coins is necessary, and patterns are fundamental to all math. Better get good at both.