A Chair for My Mother Book Activities: Money Math for Preschoolers

Through brilliant illustrations, Vera B. Williams tells a poignant story of a little girl whose home is destroyed by a fire in the book A Chair for My Mother.  Now, she, her mother, and her grandmother are saving all of their change to buy a new chair.  The little girl dreams of a nice chair for her mother to relax in when she gets home from a hard day at work.  Finally one day, they have enough money to buy their prefect chair.

Here are some activities that we did in our home-preschool for this book.

We have a list on our fridge that we made awhile back when learning about James and John  from the Bible.  It was very enlightening to see where Bear’s {4.5} priorities were.  Number one on the list was to help the Covering Orphanage in Sierra Leone, which is a part of The Raining Season.  Our church works with them and we sponsor two children from there. They are constantly in need due to the ever-rising lease of their facility and the high demand for orphan care in the village and surrounding ones.

Practice Counting Coins
Use a jar of coins {real or fake} and practice counting them.  For the activity we did, I found free coin printables {from a source I can’t find}, colored them, and laminated them.  I explained to Bear that the coins we use all stand for a number and an amount of the smallest cent, a penny.  I laid out the laminated paper coins and helped him to set the appropriate amount of pennies on the paper coin.  This was great counting practice, especially counting to 25 for the quarter.

We also talked about the difference in dollar bills.  $1 being the base dollar, like the 1 cent penny.  And then onto the fact that five $1 bills equals a $5 bill.  This gave us the opportunity for Bear to practice addition as well.  ex: $5 + $3 = $8

You can also find a fun money bingo game here {created by Joyce at Childhood Beckons}

Decorate Your Own Chair
This can be done two ways.  The first, use scraps of paper to decorate the outline a paper chair.  The second, find a wooden chair at a craft store or local thrift store for your child to paint.

Ask children what they would do if they had a jar of coins.  What would they spend it on?  Who would they give their purchase to?  Save it?  Or donate it to a charity?  Bear decided that our change would go to the Covering Orphanage… all $122.77 of it.