- How do you write a check to pay for something?
These questions may be useful in helping students down the problem solving path:
- What does it mean to “Write the dollar amount in words”?
This task’s complexity will change depending on the grade level you are using it with. In second grade you would only have students write checks for whole dollar amounts. By fifth grade you would expect them to write out amounts of money that include decimals (which can be written as fractions or in words).
This activity is flexible enough to be a stand alone lesson or integrated with arithmetic operations so that students have a budget of, for example, $100 and they can write checks to pay for whatever they want from an advertisement, as long as they stay under budget. I have not included any items that students could pretend to purchase so you may want to bring in a local advertisement or create your own.
- Blank check template (included as a set of 3 on a printable PDF in “Download files”)
- CCSS 2.NBT.3 Read and write numbers to 1000 using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form.
- CCSS 4.NBT.2 Read and write multi-digit whole numbers using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form. Compare two multi-digit numbers based on meanings of the digits in each place, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of comparisons.
- CCSS 5.NBT.3a Read and write decimals to thousandths using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form, e.g., 347.392 = 3 × 100 + 4 × 10 + 7 × 1 + 3 × (1/10) + 9 × (1/100) + 2 × (1/1000).