Virginia SOL 3.NS.4.d
The Standard
Solve contextual problems to make change from $5.00 or less by using counting on or counting back strategies with concrete or pictorial models.
Virginia Standards of Learning for Mathematics · The student will solve problems, including those in context, that involve counting, comparing, representing, and making change for money amounts up to $5.00.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students find how much money should be returned after a purchase. They count up from the price or back from the amount paid, using coins, bills, or drawings to show their thinking.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students find the correct change for purchases costing up to $5.00. They use coins, bills, or drawings to show each counting step and check that the price plus the change equals the amount paid.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may count the number of coins instead of their values. They may start counting from zero, mix up counting on and counting back, or mishandle the change from dollars to cents.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A notebook costs $2.37, and a customer pays $5.00. Draw money, show a counting strategy, and write the change.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Set up a classroom store with price tags, play money, and pairs taking turns as customer and cashier.
Ask students to explain whether counting on or counting back is easier for finding change from $5.00 after a $3.68 purchase.
Play Change Race by drawing price cards, choosing a payment amount, and building the correct change with coins before a partner.
Use a local menu with items under $5.00, then have students choose one item and draw the change from a five-dollar bill.
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Printable 3.NS.4.d Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 3.NS.4.d, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Related Standards
- 4.CE.3.c
Solve single-step contextual problems involving multiplication of a whole number, limited to 12 or less, and a unit fraction (e.g., 6 × 1 3 , 1 5 × 8, 2 × 1 10 ...
- 2.CE.1.c
Represent, solve, and justify solutions to single-step and multistep contextual problems (e.g., join, separate, part-part-whole, comparison) involving addition ...
- K.CE.1.f
Model and solve single-step contextual problems (join, separate, and part-part-whole) using 10 or fewer concrete objects.
- 3.NS.4
The student will solve problems, including those in context, that involve counting, comparing, representing, and making change for money amounts up to $5.00.
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