Money: totals and change – Grade 4 math lesson

For parents: how to use this lesson

You don't need to know this topic yourself. The lesson explains each step on screen, the way Mr Euclid, our Head of Math, likes it: one tidy step at a time. Every answer is graded straight away with a worked explanation, so you never have to grade anything.

1. Read what your child will learn together.
2. Press Start the lesson below and sit with your child for the teaching and the worked examples (about 19 minutes).
3. Let them do the practice on their own. They choose Getting started, On track or Challenge – start on On track and move up after a few right in a row.
4. Finish with the exit ticket and the talk question: “Why does counting up work for finding change?”
5. Later that day or the next day: the homework (20 minutes), then a practice test.

Watch out for

• Lining up dollars and cents wrongly (treating $2.50 as 250 dollars). Use coins, then write the amount with the decimal point lined up.
• Giving the price instead of the change. Ask "How much do I get back?"

Miss Hypatia's tip for home: Let your child pay for something small and check the change.