The Penny Pot: An Educational Math Story About Face Painting, Friends, and Counting Coins for Kids (Ages 6-10)

MathStart: Level 3 #5

by Stuart J. Murphy, Lynne Cravath (Illustrator)

“Kids, young and old, fall in love with math when they see how real-life and effortless it becomes thanks to these books.” —Kimberly D. Mueller, Ed.D., First Grade Teacher, Ashbrook School, Lumberton NJ The Penny Pot  is perfect for teaching counting coins to second, third, and fourth graders. Life-size coins and a cat named Chester will soon have readers confidently counting coins along with Jessie and her friends at the face-painting booth. Kids will love the story and the funny illustrations by Lynne Cravath. Parents and other educators will love how the story and pictures make understanding comparisons a breeze—as well as the concrete examples of how math works! The book contains activities for adults to do with kids to extend math into their own lives! Math skills are life skills, and the MathStart series supports success! MathStart's unique combination of stories, illustrations, and visual models helps teachers and parents in the teaching of math and provides all children with the opportunity to succeed. The math concepts taught in MathStart books conform to state and national standards. Level 1 is Pre-K–Kindergarten; Level 2 is Grades 1–3; Level 3 is Grades 2–4. The series follows math topics across grades so there is a foundational path to learning that runs through the levels. Help kids with their math skills  plus  their reading skills with the engaging and fun MathStart series!

Genres: Mathematics, Picture Books, Money, Childrens, Counting, Fiction, 1st Grade

40 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 1998

About the author

PICTURES & WORDS, STORIES & BOOKS
MathStart http://www.mathstart.net
I See I Learn http://www.iseeilearn.com

I was one of those kids who talked all the time in class. I loved telling stories. One day in the 4th Grade, my teacher said, “You tell such good stories, maybe you should try writing some of them down.” “Wow,” I thought. “She thinks my stories are good.” That’s when I started to really enjoy writing.

I was also the class artist. When I wasn’t talking,I was drawing. When I was older, I studied art at the Rhode Island School
of Design. That’s where I became interested in visual learning—how we decode and acquire information from graphs, charts, diagrams, models, illustrations and other images.

I became especially interested in educational publishing and have worked on the development of over a dozen major textbook programs, championing visual learning strategies from Pre-K through high school in every major curriculum area.

MATHSTART

The inspiration to write math stories for children was sparked by my work on a high school mathematics program. Visual learning strategies helped teens—who had been characterized as “reluctant learners’—understand difficult math concepts. Putting math in the context of stories based on their experiences made them feel more comfortable with abstract concepts. They actually became eager to apply math to real-life problems.
If this approach worked for older students, I began to wonder what might happen if younger children were introduced to math this way!

Even before children can read—or speak many words—they can interpret visual information with ease. The MathStart books use simple stories coupled with diagrams, graphs and other visual models to teach everything from probability and pattern recognition to area, capacity and negative numbers.

The Best Bug Parade, (comparing sizes) was my very first published book. It was absolutely thrilling to see my name in print! I never expected that one day there would 63 MathStart books, split over three levels for ages Pre-K to Grade 4.

Each book includes two pages of review and activities designed to help teachers and parents extend learning beyond the story, along with suggestions of related books by other authors. After all, if a child enjoys learning math through stories, then let’s have more stories!
(Pictures, Words & Math: An interview with Stuart J. Murphy )

THE MAIN STREET KIDS' CLUB: A MATHSTART MUSICAL

Now get out your dancing shoes—there is a musical based on six of the MathStart books! The Main Street Kids’ Club was workshopped at Northwestern University and adapted by Scott Ferguson, who also created the perennially popular production of Schoolhouse Rock Live!
The songs are terrific. The math is spot on. And the club motto makes my heart sing: “Math Skills are Life Skills!”

STUART J. MURPHY'S I SEE I LEARN

My latest series of books is focused on young children—Preschool and Kindergarten age.
I See I Learn books teach social, emotional, health and safety, and cognitive skills, such as how to make friends, build confidence, play safely, work together, manage emotions, and make plans. These skills are important for school readiness and for living happy, healthy, productive lives.

The stories “star” a wonderful bunch of friends who live in See-and-Learn City and attend Ready Set Pre-K. The cast includes Freda, Percy, Emma, Ajay, Camille, and Carlos. And, of course, Pickle, the green bull dog—who happens to have a soft-spot for butterflies—and Miss Cathy, their teacher.

I See I Learn stories are modeled on real-life situations and, just as in real-life, often involve more than one skill. For example, Freda Plans a Picnic is about sequencing, a cognitive skill, but the picnic itself is a social event. Percy Plays It Safe focuses on playground safety skills, but playing successfully in a group also requires self-regulation, an emotional skill.

Each book is reviewed by a tea

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stuart J. Murphy's The Penny Pot basically and for all intents and purposes simply but wonderfully features a standard but in my opinion also generally engaging little anecdote of how young Jessie is able to use (and count up) the change left in a so-called penny pot in order to obtain enough cash to get her face painted at the June School Fair (it costs fifty cents, but she only has thirty-nine cents in her pocket and thus she requires eleven cents more). And not only are different types of coins featured and depicted (for basic recognition patterns, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, all American currency though, as The Penny Pot is printed/published in the USA), but different combinations of said coins are also shown in order to practice actual, mathematical counting (and by extension, of course, also making monetary change).

Now as to Lynne Cravath's accompanying illustrations for The Penny Pot, they are bright and imbued with much lively and humorous fun, a bit too exaggerated and cartoon like for me to completely enjoy them on an aesthetic level, but still and nevertheless a delightful mirror of Stuart J. Murphy’s featured narrative (thus indeed, presenting a rather sweet and engaging marriage of text and image, one that while not spectacular and with a major "wow" factor does in an entertainingly engaging and informative manner teach both basic numeracy and financial literacy).

Recommended for both at home and in-class use (and with the activity suggestions, math games and suggestions for further reading on pages 32/33 being an added and much appreciated bonus, greatly enhancing the already stellar teaching and learning value of The Penny Pot and showing both children and adults that mathematical concepts are indeed not only an important but also a fun and interesting, engaging part of our lives).

[Inna Nako · Rating 4 out of 5]

-a girl wants to get her face painted, but she doesnt have enough money
-but the solution is that people that have extra pennies would put them in the penny jar
-finally, the girl had enough money by adding the pennies and extra change to what she originally had
-this would be a great follow along where the kids would have their own money manipulatives and would follow with the book
-great book to show addition and subtraction with dimes, nickels, and pennies
-it would be very fun to have a penny jar in the class where the students could place extra pennies, and keep track of the pennies on some kind of graph; then when the jar is full, the children teacher will buy something and have a "party" (ice cream or popcorn party)

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Penny Pot is a great book when you want to do a math lesson about counting money, and making trades! Jess wants to get her face painted but it costs 50 cents and she only has 39. The artist reassures her that people may have money left over and when they do, they'll drop it into the penny pot for Jessie to contribute towards her 39 cents.

-displays coins in the pages, showing their worth
-creates problems to add up different amounts, and proposing how much someone has left over, how much more someone needs, etc.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an entertaining and educational story about money in the MathStart series by Stuart J. Murphy. It helps children learn to count and recognize different denominations of coins, but it also teaches about making wise choices with our money.

The illustrations are colorful and entertaining and our girls had fun describing how they would want their face painted. We also discussed how different places can charge varied amounts for face painting (Sometimes it's free. This was a school fair, so it was only 50 cents. We visited Disney World and saw that they charged $15!!)

We've really enjoyed reading the books in this series, especially the Level 3 stories. We will certainly look for more of these books at our local library.

[Mary Conroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased The Penny Pot this past semester and used it for several math lessons. I highly recommend this book for late first, second, and third grade students. It is great for interactive money lessons. Students get practice adding and subtracting money, and identifying the value of coins. They also get to practice trading coins. The story is fun as well, with colorful and cute illustrations. The story can be stretch for almost an entire math lesson about money. I had my students come to the white board to help solve different problems given by the book.

[Private Account · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book teaches children that one does not need to budget one's money and that when one runs out of money (having spent it all on ice cream) one should just ... get a little bit of money from a lot of people and then proceed buying the things one wants. This author teaches kids that everyone looooooves giving to beggars, and they should never worry about having enough money to buy something they want because there will always be someone who is just dying to give some of their money to them. YIKES.

[Betty Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The penny pot' is an excellent book for teaching counting coins. In this book, the main character Jessie wants to get a face painting which cost 50 cents. However, she only has 39 cents left because she just bought the ice-cream. Jessie is waiting for customers who will put the extra pennies in the penny pot. Finally, Jessie got enough money and gets a face painting. The teacher can use model coins to demonstrate or act it out for students' a better understanding.

[Ali Hembree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jessie wants to get her face painted but after she spends some money on an ice cream, she only has 39 cents left. It takes 50 cents to get your face painted to she has to wait for more money to come to the penny jar at the center.

This book is an adventure of counting money and problem solving. Perfect for grades K-2nd grades, this book will teach kids how to count money and how to start to save for the things you really want.

[Michelle King · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Penny Pot is an excellent book to combine Literacy and Math in the classroom. I used this book to introduce my coin counting lesson in my 1st grade feild placement class. The book is about a girl wanting to get her face painted at the fair. She only has 39 cents and the face painting cost 50 cents. Read on to see how she gets the additional 11 cents.....Awesome book!

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing extraordinary about the plot, but this book--if read when your child is learning the values of the coins, addition, and numbers up to 100--can be a good math tool. It's more pleasurable than other math picture books I've picked up.

[Johna Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jessie, the main character, would like to get her face painted at the school fair but does not have enough money. Luckily, there is a penny pot where students put their extra pennies. Counting the money in the pot is a part of the story. This story could be used for counting money as well as predicting. As a teacher, I would use this story to teach students how to make predictions. I would demonstrate this by reading the title and making a prediction about the book based on the front cover. I would explain to my students that predictions require making new connections using prior knowledge. Predicting is not a wild guess but a thoughtful hypothesis based on the clues provided. While reading the story aloud, I will stop and let students make predictions. I will take notes of the predictions so that we could see whether our predictions were correct. I will explain to my students that our predictions will change as we continue reading. Predictions change with the more information you receive. We will discuss and share our thoughts as a class.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the illustrations!! The love the illustrator's usage of red and yellow hues. I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this book. Math is not my favorite subject but the book explains the math in a simple and easy way. The book follows a young girl wants to get her face painted, but she doesn't have enough money. Fran's solution is that people that have extra pennies would put them in the penny jar. Finally, the girl had enough money by adding the pennies and extra change to what she originally had. This is a great book to use to explain to students how to count money. If you were teaching a math lesson with us you could use manipulatives an order for the students to follow along.

[Maleigha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for students up until the 3rd grade. A fun story that students can follow along with as you read and learn about money. Jessie, the main character, would like to participate in getting her face painted and the school fair but does not have enough money. Fortunately, there is a penny pot where students put their extra pennies. As Jessie sits down, the reader can't help but count with her as change gets placed in the penny jar. This is great for practicing money skills, you may even provide your students with money manipulatives to use while listening. Students will become familiar with adding cents, and the different ways to make the same amount of money.

[Emily Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great nonfiction book to use in an early elementary classroom when learning about money and counting money. The story is about an art teacher who has a face painting booth at the school fair. She charges 50 cents for children to get their face painted. Throughout the story the reader is asked to help count money children are giving her to get their face painted. Any extra change goes into the penny pot. This story is interactive and realistic which help a young child relate to it.

[Kate Puleo Unger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Penny Pot is part of the MathStart series, which I read about recently. It's a cute story that incorporates counting money. A little girl really wants to get her face painted at the school carnival, but she doesn't have enough money. The art teacher has a "penny pot" available at the face painting tent. When kids have extra pennies, they add them to the pot, and eventually the girl has enough money to get her face painted. It's fun, and I loved the math.

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[Yadira · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great book to help children practice counting money. This book tells the story of a young girl who wants to get her face painted but doesn't have enough money. As people come to get their face painted they leave their extra pennies in the penny pot. This book can be used to do a lesson on counting money and finding out how much money is needed to make a certain amount. Once the book is ready children can use school money to work out some math problems.

[Irina · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Jessie doesn't have enough money to get her face painted. (She has .39 cents but needs .50 cents)The art teacher tells her that she can wait and see if there will be enough money in the penny pot to add to her .39 cents. This book is a great book when teaching about counting coins; it can be used as a guide for an activity where students use fake money and buy things. (They can also have a penny pot!)

[Kalisha Mohammed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will introduce the book to the students. I will divide my students into groups by the characters in the story. There will be a group for: Miguel,Sam,Jonathan,and Annie. I will instruct the students to listen for their character as I read the book and write down how much money he/she had for the face painting. Also, they will write down how much extra money each person had after they got their faces painted. We will add it up before the story reveals the amount left for Jessie.

[Kelli Bratten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love these math start books! The authors make the stories readable and integrate math in a way that the students and teacher can problem solve using the skills that they have learned. I would try to give each student the coins that the girl in the story have so they can follow along. I would also like to have the students come up and put the money in a pot while we read along with the story. They would write number sentences to go along with what was read in the book.

[Chanelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great for learning combinations of 50 cents and trading. I liked how each child had to put their left overs after buying something at the carnival so that someone else had the opportunity to participate at the carnival. You could have a carnival with games that students could play that would cost a specific amount. Each student would put their left overs in the classroom jar and at the end the class could count how much they collected.

[Megan Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cute story about counting pennies would be great to start out a classroom activity where students can "shop around" the class to get their faces painted and other carnival activities. Each shopping station would cost a specific amount of money and we would record all the different ways that students make up the amount required. Money is the most relevant math concept; you can't have too much practice!

[Kayla Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In one of my field experience classrooms I did a lesson on counting money and what that means when it comes to making purchases. This book would have worked great to read at the end of this unit because it allows the students to count the money on the pages and see if the little girl has enough change for what she wants to buy. It would be a great way to review for the students before a test or performance assessment.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a level 3 book. My littler guys didn't much care for it, but the big guys liked it. This does not teach coin recognition or value. You would need to know that beforehand. This is good though as a supplemental activity once they do know how to count coins.

I think this is a good choice for review or just to help cement the money concept.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book in a math lesson that deals with money. I created a store and gave the students an amount of money. They had to figure out what they could buy with the money by comparing prices and counting their change. They really liked this lesson and I was surprised how much they knew about the market place.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Economics: price Grade 1-3

The books is a cute story about a girl who wants an ice cream but did not have enough money to purchase one. Other children donate their extra change to a pot and at the end the girl collects enough money for an ice cream. Great economcis lesson on price and the cost of things. This book could also be used in mathematics to count money or foucs on value of money.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provides students with practice in counting money (specifically coins). I would use it as a whole class read aloud, or with a small group who needed remediation counting coins. For an extension, the teacher could pose problems about trading smaller coins for larger ones. Students could also construct a diagram of the various ways to make fifty cents from a combination of coins. (K-3)

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Penny Pot by Stuart J. Murphy is a great book that can be used to teach students about money and coins. It can also teach students how to accurately exchange currency. The book uses accurate pictures of coins to help students remember what each coin looks like. This book can be used to teach students in 1-3 grade.

[Chelsea Bucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

2nd Grade level MathStart book. This book is very interactive for the reader(s). It allows students to count out the money shown in the pictures. It would best be read on a lesson regarding money. As an extension, the students could show the amounts of money on each page with real money. Therefore, they would be doing the math along with the characters in the book.

[Devan Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great book that you can use several times throughout the year to remind kids of the practical nature of math, and to show them how they already use math in their everyday lives. Since there are different stories that illustrate how a particular math skill is used, you could read one story or read the entire book/series.

[Quynh Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has nice pictures for students to look at and can go along with a lesson on money. Students can go along with the story and create the amount in the book with their own money manipulative, to aid their money counting skill. I also liked the resource page at the end which offered more activities for kids and adults to have fun with money, such as 'make believe shopping.'