Making sense of cents

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- Students bought half a pizza for 39 cents -- what a

deal.

Apparently, the rock-bottom price reflected the pie’s cardboard

appeal.

Gina Stewart, a special day teacher at Paularino Elementary School,

used the cardboard pizza and some plastic cups of “soda” to give meaning

to the lesson she was teaching about money.

“The practical application makes it more fun and gives them a reason

to do it,” Stewart said.

Her class is made up of students with language disorders who have

difficulty with their communications and social skills. So even though

Stewart was working on a math lesson, she had them interact with herself

and other students to make it a social event as well.

“I would like some change,” requested Aaron McCulloch, 7, politely.

“Five nickels for a quarter.”

They could get a whole pizza for less than a dollar, and sodas ranged

from 11 cents to 23 cents. But because they had to give her exact change,

the students were allowed to exchange currency. All of the nuances of the

lesson were there for a reason -- for optimal learning.

Once Aaron changed in the quarter for nickels, he realized he would

also need some pennies for the transaction, so he exchanged two nickels

for pennies.

“I’ll have 11 pennies now -- ha ha,” he crowed.

As Aaron bought his pizza, the other three boys around the table

thought out their next purchases.

And, of course, ate their pizza and drank their sodas.

Johnny Duong, 8, got the pretend hiccups from his pretend soda.

Stewart ended the lesson by relating the experience and hands-on

learning back to math problems. She did this in the form of a word

problem.

“Aaron bought a fourth of a pizza for 29 cents, and Johnny bought a

large drink,” she told them. “Altogether how much did they spend?”

While Stewart ran the pizza parlor for one small group of students,

her aide Jackie Rooney worked with another group.

Rooney had students rolling number dice and writing addition and

subtraction problems. She had two objectives: to see the right answer but

also to have children line up the problems correctly.

One problem with the new math workbooks, Stewart said, is that they

line up the problems for students only requiring an answer to be filled

in. Therefore, students don’t learn number places and to line up math

problems.

Later, the groups switched places and others would have a turn in the

pizza parlor.

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a campus within the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District and writes about her experience.