Coins to a Target Task Box

About this resource

EVERYTHING INSIDE — 22 pages, FIELDS_TBD type-in fields (to be verified: pypdf field count on the shipped PDF)

• 33 coin cards across 3 levels (12 rounds: 6 rounds of 2 cards, 3 rounds of 3 cards, 3 rounds of 4 cards). Every card is a target tile over a small pile of drawn US coins — pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters only, never a bill, and every amount on every card is under a dollar. The child counts the coins and sorts the card into a REACHES bin (the coins add up to the target amount, or more) or a FALLS SHORT bin (less)
• Every card twice: copper and silver coins for a laminated classroom box, and outline-only coins for the photocopier — every coin drawn and labeled with its value, no picture library either way
• A two-bin sort mat (color and ink-saver), REACHES and FALLS SHORT, each with a plain-language line ("The coins add up to the target amount, or more." / "The coins add up to less than the target amount. Not yet."), one worked sample and six card-sized slots
• An answer key listing every card by level: the target, the coins drawn on it, what it adds to, and its bin
• A task box data sheet (16 rows: date, level, cards used, cards correct, cards given, percent, help given, initials)
• A percent graph, 14 sessions across, with a level box under each session
• A filled example — an invented student, 8 sessions, every percent re-counted from its own row
• A family practice page with six of the same cards and the two bins, cut apart as one 3 x 2 grid
• A phrase bank: spoken lines for running the box and written starters for the note afterward, 25 lines in 6 groups
• Start Here, a contents page with page thumbnails, and a "what's next" back page

The same money-skill question, made simpler: here is a target amount, here is a small pile of coins — does it reach the target? Coins only, never a bill, and every amount in the box stays under a dollar, so this is the on-ramp before the store's five-to-ten-dollar Enough Money box. Exactly reaching the target counts as REACHES, the way exact change does at a register, and the answer is never printed on the card; only the mat's bin headers name the two outcomes, so the child has to count the coins every time.

Three Levels, And The Difficulty Is How Close The Coins Are To The Target

• Level 1 — 6 rounds, 2 cards each. Every pile is one kind of coin only (three dimes, two quarters, six nickels), and the coins are at least 20 cents above or below the target: count one coin type and the answer is obvious.
• Level 2 — 3 rounds, 3 cards each. Every pile mixes at least two coin types, and the gap narrows to 8–19 cents either way — close enough that the coins have to be added, far enough that a one-coin counting slip does not flip the answer. No exact cards at this level.
• Level 3 — 3 rounds, 4 cards each, cut as one strip. Piles stay mixed and the gap narrows to within a nickel (0–5 cents) of the target, including cards that reach it exactly. At least one Level 3 card carries a penny, a nickel and a dime together — the well-known mix-up where the dime is worth more than either but is the smallest coin of the three, live on a card for the first time at this level.

Nothing on a card says its level or its bin except a dot code in the corner (one, two or three dots), so a mixed-up box sorts itself back together.

DRAWN COINS, ON PURPOSE — every coin is a labeled circle at its real size relative to the others (the dime really is the smallest), drawn the same way in both sets. There is no clip-art coin to misread. Targets are written without a currency symbol, as cents only (30¢), because every amount in this box stays under a dollar.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the data sheet, the graph header, the family page and the example-style notes, or print and use a pen. The card pages and sort mat print on cardstock or plain paper and cut along dashed lines. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document, and it is not a test of anything.

The coins are drawn small, not at true size, and no target on a card is a real price. It carries no prompt hierarchy, fading schedule or mastery rule, and it does not decide what a percent means for a student or when to move up a level. The goal line and the criterion field are blanks for your district's own wording and your team's own number. It measures one thing: cards placed in the correct bin.

Who This Is For

Special education teachers and paraprofessionals running independent work stations or task box rotations with students who are just starting out on coin-counting and purchasing skills, case managers who need that practice to show up as data, and the families who get the practice page sent home.

More In The Collection

This is one set in the Task Box Collection; more sort, counting and life-skills boxes are being added to the collection regularly, all on the same cards-plus-data shape.