Title – State Quarters Project

By – Laurie T. Kelly, M.Ed.

Primary Subject – Social Studies

Grade Level – Grades 3-6

Concept / Topic To Teach: Location of the Fifty States

Standards Addressed: The United States map provides an example for how a national population defined its regions in terms of states.

General Goal(s): To use state quarters to teach state names, location and symbols. To increase family involvement in social studies education.

Specific Objectives: As students collect state quarters and place them on U.S. maps at home, they are encouraged to learn the names of the states and their locations. In addition, the graphics and symbols contained on the state quarters might motivate students to learn their significance to the individual states.

Required Materials:

A few state quarters

U.S. maps for the teacher and all students large enough to display quarters

One sheet of poster paper

Anticipatory Set (Lead-In): How many of you collect coins? What kinds do you collect? Would you like to bring some of them to school and show them to the class? I have a collection of state quarters on this map. Have you ever noticed that some quarters have the names of the United States on one side? Do any of you collect state quarters? I’m going to call each group to come up and look at my collection.

Step-By-Step Procedures:

1. Provide each student with a United States map labeled with state names. These can be black and white enlargements of a reproducible map.

2. Have students bring their maps home and ask their families to help them collect state quarters. Suggest that they glue the quarters onto the maps and keep them on a flat surface so they won’t get lost.

3. On a daily basis, encourage students to bring in duplicate state quarters that they don’t need to trade with you or other students for quarters that they need.

4. Keep a list on a poster of the state quarters in your inventory. Tell students that they can trade a regular non-state quarter or an extra one they don’t need for a state quarter they do need from you. Your students will be reading and saying the names of the states in no time! They won’t even realize that they’re learning.

Assessment Based on Objectives: After a couple of weeks of quick, daily references to the state quarters collection, ask students to list in their journal as many states as they can think of. You can assess which states they remember most (those near your own state?, and thus the states the class as a whole needs to learn. You can allow the students to correct their spelling of the state names by providing maps to look at afterwards, such as one in their social studies texts.

Adaptations (For Students with Learning Disabilities):

This is a good project for students with special needs or English language learners. It’s open-ended, voluntary, very hands-on and visual. Parental participation will increase student effort. The constant repetition of the state names will aid any special needs children.

Extensions (For Gifted Students):

Have gifted students use the Internet to research why the state quarters have the unique graphics and symbols they do. What is the meaning and significance of each quarter’s design?

Possible Connections to Other Subjects:

Math (Money),

Reading

E-Mail

Laurie T. Kelly, M.Ed.

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