Let’s Learn!

Think About It!

Goal: Use money symbols to calculate money problems.

Rowdy the Monkey is not afraid of a challenge. He wants to teach you how to use money symbols and how to solve money problems.

It is important to understand money symbols. The money symbol for dollars looks like this $. The money symbol for cents looks like this ¢.

However, when we have dollars AND cents, we use only the dollar sign $ and a decimal point. The dollars come first and are to the left of the decimal. The cents are always to the right of the decimal. Let’s investigate.

Rowdy the Monkey has the following coins in his parachute: 4 quarters, 3 dimes, 6 nickels, and 2 pennies. Is the value of the money over a dollar? Let’s find the value.

4 quarters = $1 or 100¢
3 dimes = 30¢
6 nickels = 30¢
2 pennies = 2 ¢

We first want to add all the cents, or ¢, that Rowdy has in his parachute.
100¢ + 30¢ + 30¢ + 2 ¢ = ?

Do you know how many cents Rowdy has in his parachute?

Hold on! Rowdy has a value of coins over a dollar. That means we can write 162¢ with a dollar sign.

When we have a coin value over 100 cents, we can write the number with just a dollar sign and a decimal. So, 162¢ equals $1.62. Rowdy the Monkey always thinks it is great to have more than a dollar!

Let’s try another money problem.

What if Rowdy the Monkey had 4 quarters, 2 dimes, 5 nickels, and a penny in his parachute? We first want to count the value of each group of coins.

4 quarters = $1, or 100¢
2 dimes = 20¢
5 nickels = 25¢
1 penny = 1¢

Again, we first add all our cents, or ¢.

What is the total value of our coins?

We have a value of coins over $1. We can take the 146¢ and write with just a dollar sign and a decimal. Remember, if we are over a dollar, we do not have to use the cents sign. So, 146¢ can be written as $1.46.

Let’s solve more problems using what we just learned. Let’s dive in!

Step One