New Zealand Money Level 2: How much is my name/place name?

urn New Zealand money practice into an activity children immediately care about: discovering how much their own name is worth!

In this engaging maths investigation, each letter is assigned the value of a New Zealand coin or note. Children find the letters in their name, add the amounts together and calculate their name’s total value.

They can then compare results across the class, represent their findings on a graph and extend the activity by calculating the value of New Zealand place names.

WHAT IS INCLUDED?

• “How Much Is My Name?” coin-value code

• Class-name graphing and investigation sheet

• “How Much Is the Place Name?” coins-and-notes code

• New Zealand map with English place names

• Aotearoa map featuring te reo Māori place names

• Place-name graphing sheet

• Teacher instructions and extension suggestions

HOW THE ACTIVITY WORKS

Each letter of the alphabet is represented by a New Zealand coin or note. Students locate each letter in a word, record its monetary value and add the amounts to find the total.

For example:

AMY = 10c + 50c + $2 = $2.60

Students begin by calculating the value of their own name. They can then compare class results, group names according to their total value and discuss patterns in the collected data.

The place-name activity introduces larger amounts by including $5 and $10 notes. Students select names from either New Zealand map, calculate their values and graph the results.

SKILLS PRACTISED

• Recognising New Zealand coins and notes

• Adding multiple money amounts

• Combining dollars and cents

• Reading decimal money notation

• Collecting and displaying data

• Comparing and categorising results

• Following an alphabetical code

• Applying maths to names and words

• Exploring New Zealand geography

EXTENSION IDEAS

Children can also calculate the value of:

• Their surname

• Friends’ and family members’ names

• Spelling words

• Favourite foods

• Books and characters

• Games and hobbies

• Towns, cities and landmarks

This activity is perfect for:

• New Zealand money units

• Financial-literacy lessons

• Montessori follow-up work

• Maths centres

• Beginning-of-year name activities

• Data and graphing investigations

• New Zealand geography studies

• Homeschool learning

Created by a Montessori and state-trained New Zealand teacher, this resource makes repeated money calculations personal, purposeful and genuinely interesting to children.

7 pages - PDF

This is a Downloadable resource.

For all of my NZ money resources click here