Nickels Circle Worksheet

Nickels are where money and skip counting meet. A penny can be counted one at a time, but a nickel asks a child to hold five in her head and jump — five, ten, fifteen — and that jump is the whole idea behind counting coins. This Nickels Circle Worksheet gives first graders a page of nickels to count, to total and to circle, so the fives stop being a memorized chant and start being a way to find out how much money is sitting on the table.

The page works in three steps. Four rows of nickels come first: students count each row by fives and write the total on the line beside it. Two more rows follow with an amount printed at the end, 35¢ and 15¢, and this time students circle exactly enough nickels to make that amount — which turns the counting around and asks them to stop at a target instead of reading to the end of the row. A short story problem closes the page: Ruby puts nine nickels in her piggy bank, and students write how much she has saved. Every nickel is drawn at its true mint size with its real FIVE CENTS lettering, so the coins on the page look like the coins in a pocket. A complete answer key is included.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Four count-the-row items with a Total line for each
• Two circle-the-amount items printed at 35¢ and 15¢
• One piggy bank story problem with its own answer line
• A full answer key page showing every total and every circled group

Three things make this page work. First, it holds one skill steady: every coin on the sheet is a nickel, so nothing competes with the counting, and a child who is still shaky on fives gets four clean attempts before anything else is asked of her. Second, the circling rows ask for the opposite move — instead of counting to the end, students count to a target and stop, which is what paying for something actually feels like. Third, the answer key lets a student check her own work, and a first grader who can check herself will usually try one more row.

Away from the page, hand a child a small pile of real nickels and ask her to build 20¢, then 45¢, then the price of something on the shelf. Line ten nickels along the table and count up and back down again. Tape a nickel to a jar lid and make it the family five-cent jar for a week. Pair this 1st grade money worksheet with a counting-by-fives song and the jumps will be humming in her head before she ever picks up a pencil, which is exactly the habit this Nickels Circle Worksheet is built to start.

Related Resources

• Counting Coins Worksheet
• Identifying Coins Worksheet
• Adding Coins Worksheet
• Counting By Fives Song