Play Pretend Store: Counting Coins and Making Change

Long, long ago, people did not have any coins at all. If you wanted a chicken, you might have to trade a bag of grain for it — but what if the chicken owner did not want grain? That problem is exactly why coins were invented, and today you get to be the shopkeeper who uses them!

- Why people started using coins instead of trading objects - The names and values of a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter - How to 'buy' something and figure out the change - What it feels like to run your very own pretend store

Thousands of years ago, people traded goods directly — this is called bartering. The tricky part: if you had eggs but wanted shoes, you had to find a shoemaker who happened to want eggs THAT day. Coins solved this because everyone agreed a coin was worth something, so you could sell eggs for coins, then use those same coins to buy shoes from anyone.

A penny is worth 1 cent. A nickel is worth 5 cents. A dime is worth 10 cents. A quarter is worth 25 cents. If a pretend toy costs 15 cents, you could pay with one dime and one nickel, or fifteen pennies — both add up to the same amount!

Pick 5 toys or household items to 'sell.' Give each one a price between 5 and 25 cents. Make a price tag for each one. Now you're ready to open for business!