Unit Plan 34 (Grade 1 Math): Time & Money Connections
Integrate real-world clock and coin problems; read hour/half-hour times, count coins, and solve story problems with addition/subtraction using clear models and explanations.
Focus: Integrate clock and coin problems in real contexts; solve story problems using addition/subtraction and clear representations.
Grade Level: 1
Subject Area: Mathematics (Measurement & Data • Operations)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 45–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
Students connect time (to the hour/half-hour) and money (coins) to everyday decisions—reading classroom schedules, planning short activities, and buying items from a “class store.” They practice choosing operations, building models, and explaining why answers make sense.
Essential Questions
- How can clocks and coins help me solve real-world problems?
- When do I add or subtract to solve a story problem about time or money?
- Which model (number line, clock, coins, table/graph) best shows my thinking?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Tell and write time to the hour and half-hour on analog and digital clocks; connect times to daily routines.
- Identify penny, nickel, dime, quarter and count sets of coins in small totals using count-by patterns (1s/5s/10s).
- Solve addition/subtraction story problems within 20 involving prices, totals, and change-in-simple-contexts; write matching equations with an unknown.
- Organize and interpret data (tallies/bar graphs) from time/money contexts; make comparative statements.
- Communicate reasoning with precise units, symbols, and models; respond to feedback and revise.
Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 1 (threaded across the unit)
- 1.MD.3: Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks.
- 1.MD.4: Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask/answer comparison questions.
- 1.OA.1: Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of add to, take from, put together, take apart, and compare.
- Mathematical Practices: MP.4 (model), MP.2 (reason), MP.6 (precision), MP.3 (justify/critique).
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can read a clock to the hour/half-hour and match it to a real event.
- I can count coins and choose add or subtract to solve a story problem.
- I can show my thinking with a model and explain why my answer makes sense.