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The Thing Lou Couldn't Do
The Penny Pot
by Stuart J. Murphy
Jessie discovers that she doesn’t have enough money to get her face painted after buying an ice cream cone. Face painting costs 50 cents and she only has 39 cents. She waits and watches while her friends get their faces painted and add their extra coins to the penny pot. Will the extra coins in the penny pot be enough for Jessie to make up the difference?
Resources for The Penny Pot:
Full Book Review (English)
Full Book Review (Spanish)
Brief Book Review (English)
Brief Book Review (Spanish)
*Spanish Versions coming soon!
Jessie doesn’t have enough money to get her face painted! What will she do?
Math Connections:
Counting Coins Addition
Skip Counting
Activities To Do Together:
• Help your child recognize the value of different American coins
• Practice adding the value of a handful of coins by skip counting as shown in the story.
• Figure out together, how long it will take to save money to buy something your child wants. Talk about how much they can save each week and how the timeline changes, if they can save more or less money each week.
• Discuss with your child how long they think it will take to have enough money to buy the object they’d like to buy.
Extension Questions:
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Do you think a penny pot is a good idea? Why or why not?
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What are three different ways to make 50 cents with different coins?
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If Jessie gets an allowance of 25 cents per week, how many weeks will it take her to save enough money to buy a toy that costs $1.00? $3.00? $5.00?
Vocabulary for Building Math Concepts:
39 cents, 50 cents, 54 cents, cost, counted, dimes extra, four, left over, money, nickel, nine, once one, pennies, quarter, seven, thirteen, three, two