Quarter collectors

Skills
This activity will make trips to the store more fun, and it will teach your children about all our American states.

Learning Stages


By The guys at Today Is Fun

Daddy bloggers

"Today is Fun" provides free, fun and educational kids games and activities each day. The site is the product of two dads who are constantly trying to think up ways to entertain the kids in their families.

As you may have noticed, quarters these days don't just have the traditional eagle on the "tails" side. Lately these coins have been showing up with representations of each state on them.

Here's all that you need to do get this activity going:

First, find a container to hold the quarters. Second, print up this map of the U.S.  Now you guys are all set to go. Have the container, the printed map, and a handful of quarters from different states on hand to help you explain this new activity to your kid. Each time your child adds a new state to the collection, he or she should color the state in on the map.

With every new quarter, you and your kid should talk about the state and review the images depicted there. The Indiana quarter has a race car—why do you think that is? You can see a Scissor Tailed Fly Catcher (it's a bird) on the Oklahoma quarter. And what is that very long, boxy looking thing on the North Carolina quarter?

You can choose to give your kid a new state each day, or you both can review the change you get back from your errands.

Have fun learning with your Quarter Collectors!

And when you've got all fifty states, please mail the collection to us here at Today Is Fun. We also will accept any other forms of currency in your collection.

 

You can also use printable maps like this to play other games:

  • Cut out the states and make a puzzle.
  • Color the map using as few colors as possible, and without allowing the same color to touch (touching at corners is OK). Can you do it in just 4 colors?
  • Color states you've visited in one color. Interview friends and color states they've been to in other colors. How many people do you need to talk to before you can color the whole map?