How to Use

The Coin Fairy's two-bag system and easy instructions lead to joyful children's learning of math, counting, and saving, fostering a love for these concepts. Our How to Use page instructions are broken into two parts, Level One - Ages 4-5, and Level Two, Ages 6+

Step One

Lost a Tooth!

Place the tooth in one bag and put it under the pillow at night.

Step Two

Swap Pouches

Swap the fairy bag with the tooth under the pillow with the second bag filled with coins. No more fishing around for a tooth while trying not to wake the sleeping child!

Step Three

Let's play

Utilize the STEM Playing Board (Level 1 or 2 depending on skill level) to foster and improve math, counting, and money skills.

Step Four

Track Your Progress

Fill out certificate and use the Tooth Tracker with stickers to record lost teeth.

Step Five

Time to Save!

Once completed, store real coins in the Coin Fairy bank!

Congrats!

Your child is having fun, learning critical math skills and looking forward losing their next tooth!

How to Win

The game takes the timeless tradition of the tooth fairy and turns it into a fun educational experience. It reinforces basic math skills and ultimately the application of those skills to real-life involving money.

This journey weaves several challenging school curriculum goals primarily in the kindergarten through third grade years and can be adapted to evolve with the level of the child. The effort that the child makes during each play is the 'win'!

Have fun and celebrate the progress that you will see!

Level One Goals

Recommended for ages 4-5 years

COIN IDENTIFICATION

ONE-TO-ONE CORRESPONDENCE (counting each item once and only once)

COUNTING ONWARDS (counting from a value that is not zero)

ADDITION

*Challenge: Skip Counting (skipping a fixed number in accordance with the preceding number ex-5,10,15)

Level Two Goals

Recommended for ages 6+

COIN VALUE

PLACE VALUE

ADDITION WITHIN A COIN CLASS/ SKIP COUNTING (method of counting by skipping a fixed number in accordance with the preceding number ex-5,10,15)

ADDITION FOR A MONETARY SUM
 
*Challenge: Value of a dollar

Level One Detailed Instructions/Objectives

WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD- small parts. Children should be monitored at all times.

You will need: Two money bags | Level 1 game board | dry erase marker | fake or real money coins (real coins not included) | coin bank | tooth certificate/ tracker | sticker sheet

Your loved one lost a tooth… Swap it out!
1. Place tooth in one bag and secure it closed by pulling on the edges of each string.
2. Place the bag with the tooth under the child’s pillow at bedtime.
3. EASY SWAP OUT! While the child is sleeping, carefully take the bag with the tooth from under the pillow and exchange it with the bag containing the real or fake coins. Feel the ease of the quick switch!

Let’s Play!

COIN IDENTIFICATION Have the child empty the bag onto a clean work area and separate the coins by appearance (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters) into piles. Talk about the features of the coins. It is useful to have real coins for this exercise, although play coins with the same simulated features are included. Start with the color of the coins. The penny is the only copper- colored coin. Next discuss size and separate the coins from smallest to largest. The order is dime, penny, nickel and then quarter. Lastly, review how the coins feel. The edge of the nickel and penny are smooth while the dime and quarter have ridges on the edge. Run the child’s nail or finger gently over the edge of each coin.

ONE-TO-ONE CORRESPONDENCE Turn to the Level 1 side of the play board. Have the child separate and then place the coins in order on the play board for each coin class starting with the number one coin. Use up to ten coins per coin class for this level of play. Starting with the penny, count out loud the number of coins in the coin class by placing the child’s finger on each coin. This early math skill called one-to-one correspondence teaches the rule of counting; we count in ascending order and account for each object in a set only once. The child can check if they did it correctly by lifting the last coin to reveal the number that they should have arrived to! Write the number of coins in the green box on the right. Repeat this step for the nickel (blue box), dime (purple box) and quarter coins (pink box).

COUNTING ONWARDS Practice counting from a value that is not zero. Start with the number of pennies recorded in the box and count from that number to include the number of nickels in the next set. For example, if there are 5 pennies on the board and 4 nickels, tell the child we start with a ‘5’ and then count 6, 7, 8, 9 by touching each nickel in the set. This gives the foundation for addition! Practice with the other coin combinations.

ADDITION Add up the total number of coins. For beginners, simply count the total number coins starting with the pennies and then continue touching each of the other coins to arrive at the total. For advanced players, follow the play board to add the number of coins in each class using the black squares to arrive at the total in red.

*Challenge: SKIP COUNTING Turn to the Level 2 side of the play board to practice skip counting. This is a method of counting by skipping a fixed number in accordance with the preceding number (ex-5,10,15). Follow along the numbers on each coin class and count out loud (for example, in the nickel column start counting aloud 5, 10, 15, 20 etc). This foundational skill helps to understand how to count money later on. Repetition is key; touch each number and say it out loud. Do this will all the coin classes.

Congratulations!
1. Fill out the motivational certificate after using The Coin Fairy game for the first time and give it to the child to enjoy.
2. Use the included stickers to have the child mark each lost tooth on the Tooth Tracker sheet.
3. Store real coins in the tooth bank.

Level Two Detailed Instructions/Objectives

WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD- small parts. Children should be monitored at all times.

You will need: Two money bags | Level 2 game board | dry erase marker | fake or real money coins (real coins not included) | coin bank | tooth certificate/ tracker | sticker sheet

Your loved one lost a tooth… Swap it out!
1. Place tooth in one bag and secure it closed by pulling on the edges of each string.
2. Place the bag with the tooth under the child’s pillow at bedtime.
3. EASY SWAP OUT! While the child is sleeping, carefully take the bag with the tooth from under the pillow and exchange it with the bag containing the real or fake coins. Feel the ease of the quick switch!

Let’s Play!

COIN VALUE Have the child empty the bag onto a clean work area and separate the coins by appearance (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters) into piles. Discuss the VALUE of each coin in relationship to the penny. Start with the penny; it is worth one cent. Next, discuss the value of a nickel in relation to the penny. For example, one nickel is worth five cents, or five pennies. Continue with each of the other coins.

PLACE VALUE Discuss the playing board and how we write a money sum using PLACE VALUE. All numbers start in the one’s column (on the right) and when the number reaches ten, the ten’s column immediately to the left is used. Reinforce when the number of cents reaches one hundred, the value now enters the ‘hundreds’ column. Point out that writing money using this format uses leading zeros. For example, 9 cents in this format are written 0.09.

ADDITION WITHIN A COIN CLASS/ SKIP COUNTING Have the child place the coins in order on the play board for each coin class starting with the top left space first. Fill left to right then proceed with the bottom. Starting with the pennies, add up the total value and record it in the green box. Next, have the child add the value of nickels by practicing skip counting by 5’s. Skip counting is a method of counting by skipping a fixed number in accordance with the preceding number (ex-5,10,15). The child can lift the last coin to check the answer! Record the value in the blue box and repeat the steps for the other coins.

ADDITION FOR A MONETARY SUM Add the total penny sum (green box) to the total nickel value (blue box). Reinforce place values for numbers as the child goes; restate it is important to start with the one’s column. Enter the sum in the black space. Continue following the play card to arrive at a total value (red box).

*Challenge: VALUE OF A DOLLAR Introduce the value of a dollar. State that 100 cents equal one dollar. Introduce the decimal point to show how dollars and cents can be written. Dollars are placed to the left of the decimal point and the total number of cents up to 99 are placed to the right of the decimal point. Review that each time we count another 100 cents, we increase our dollar value by 1 and the cents value starts over. The cent sign is written after the number; dollar sign before.

Congratulations!
1. Fill out the motivational certificate after using The Coin Fairy game for the first time and give it to the child to enjoy.
2. Use the included stickers to have the child mark each lost tooth on the Tooth Tracker sheet.
3. Store real coins in the tooth bank.

Learn More About Coin Fairy

All the information you need to get started

Early childhood education is vital for future success, and integrating playful elements like the Coin Fairy can make foundational math and money skills both engaging and memorable.