What is the meaning of 'hairy money'?

The term 'hairy money' refers to a counting method where each coin gets a certain number of hairs. Quarters have 5 hairs (worth 25 cents), dimes have 2 hairs (worth 10 cents), nickels have 1 hair (worth 1 cent), and pennies have 0 hairs and are worth 1 cent. This method helps students skip count by 5's to find the total amount.

Can hairy money help students learn to count coins?

Hairy money is an intervention tool that has been very helpful in my classroom as students are learning to count coins. The concept behind hairy money is that it allows students to simply skip count by 5’s to find the total amount. Each coin gets a certain number of hairs.

How does hair money work?

I like to use the “Hairy Money Method” for this. Each coin gets a set of hairs to represent its value. Each hair is worth 5 cents so a quarter gets 5 hairs, a dime gets 2 hairs, a nickel gets 1 hair and the poor penny is bald so it just gets a dot. You can click here to download the poster below!