Ella Earns Her Own Money

$Ella Earns Her Own Money book cover$

Grade 1
4 skill lessons

Math

Skill lessons

The mathematics the book carries, taught directly. Printable workbook pages and teacher keys are not available for this book yet.

1The Jar Line Chain
2How Much More to Twenty
3The One Minus
4What One Day Paid

Math + reading

Math through the reading

The same book, entered through a sentence it prints. Change one word in the reading and the numbers change with it.

No math-through-reading lessons for this book yet.

Reading

Reading and language lessons

The same book read as a text. What a word means in its sentence, how a character is shown, how the writing is put together - no mathematics.

No reading and language lessons for this book yet.

Both exports carry any edits you have made. Edits are saved in this browser only — nobody else sees them, and they are not sent anywhere.

Skill lessons

4 lessons on the mathematics the book carries. Printable workbook pages and teacher keys are not available for this book yet.

1. The Jar Line Chain Fluency · Running a total forward through six printed checkpoints, adding one, two or four dollars at a time and never passing twenty

Every chapter of this book closes with a line of arithmetic about the same jar, and the six lines lock together: every one after the first begins on the number the line before it ended on, so the numbers they start with run one, two, five, eight, eleven, sixteen, and the last one ends on twenty, which is the price the first page gives for the soccer ball. Groups sort the six lines into order using nothing but that rule, then build the whole book on one mat, laying down the cards each line names and lifting one card off at the single line that says minus, counting the pile aloud at every stop. Because the pile is never swept clear, a child sees the total carried rather than restarted, which is the fluency this book is built to give. The last step takes the cards away and asks for the chain from memory, one to twenty in seven numbers.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Line up the six jar lines (4 min)
Your group gets the six jar lines on separate cards, shuffled. Put them in the book's order using one rule only: a line goes after the line whose answer it starts with. One card starts on a number that is nobody's answer, and that card goes first. One of the others is written in words instead of dollar signs, so read it aloud before you decide it does not fit anywhere. Read each card as you place it and say the number it ends on. Do not add anything up yet.
Word preview: plus, equals
$1 plus $1 equals $2.
Sixteen dollars plus four dollars equals twenty dollars.
2. Build every total in dollar cards (6 min)
Start with two dollar cards on the mat, which is where the first line lands, so the first card is already done and you begin at the second. The number a line starts with is the pile you already have, so do not lay it again: put on only the dollars after it, take one dollar off at the line that says minus, and count the whole pile aloud before you move to the next card. Never clear the mat. Your count after each line has to match the number that line ends on, and if it does not, count the pile again before you go on.
Word preview: minus
$2. Plus $2. Plus $1. equals $5.
$8 plus $4 minus $1 equals $11.
3. Check the first number against the last (6 min)
Lay the six cards back in a row. Draw an arrow from the number each line ends on to the number the next line starts with, saying the pair aloud as you draw: ends on five, starts on five. Now look only at those two numbers on every card, the one it starts with and the one it ends on, and ignore everything in the middle. All but two of them have an arrow on them. Find the two that do not and say what each one is — the dollar Ella began with, and the price of the ball she is saving for.
Word preview: equals
That ball costs $20.
One dollar.
4. Say the chain from one to twenty (4 min)
Turn the cards face down. Each child in turn says the whole chain of totals from memory: one, two, five, eight, eleven, sixteen, twenty. Then one of you writes the seven totals along a strip and covers one of them with a finger. The next child says which total is hidden and gives the total before it and the total after it as the proof, or the one neighbour there is when the hidden total sits at an end.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Build every total in dollar cards (5 min)
Start with two dollar cards on the mat. Put on the dollars each line adds, take one off at the line that says minus, and count the pile aloud at every stop without ever clearing it.
Word preview: minus
$2. Plus $2. Plus $1. equals $5.
2. Check the first number against the last (4 min)
Draw an arrow from each line's answer to the next line's first number and say the pair aloud. Then look only at the number each card starts with and the number it ends on, ignore the middle, and find the two of those that no arrow touches. Say what each one is.
Word preview: equals
That ball costs $20.

Three levels

Support: Start with the pile already counted out to eight dollars and work only the last three lines. The number each line starts with is the pile that is already there, so add only the dollars after it, lift the one card off when the line says minus, and count the whole pile after each line: eleven, sixteen, twenty. It is the same chain and the same counting, three links instead of six, and no child has to carry a total in the head from one card to the next.
At Grade: Six cards sorted by the rule that a line follows the line whose answer it begins with, the pile built once and never cleared, counted aloud after every line and matched to the number that line ends on, the arrows drawn and said, the two untouched numbers named, and the chain of seven totals given back from memory.
Extension: Write the seven totals in a row — one, two, five, eight, eleven, sixteen, twenty — and under every one after the first write the jump from the total before it, which gives six jumps under seven totals: one, three, three, three, five, four. Say where the run of threes stops and what the jumps do after it. Then work out what Ella would have had on Sunday if the run of threes had carried on from eleven, and how far short of the ball fourteen dollars leaves her.

English learners

The dollar sign is written in front of the amount and said behind it: $2 is read as two dollars, and nothing on the line tells a child that the sign moves when the mouth gets to it. Plenty of languages write the money word after the number, in the order English says it, so what needs rehearsing here is the reading order rather than the meaning. Say each line aloud twice before any counting starts — two dollars plus two dollars plus one dollar equals five dollars — and let the cards on the mat hold the amounts while the mouth catches up. Rehearse the frame ___ dollars plus ___ dollars equals ___ dollars. Ask children how money is written and said in their strongest language, and write one of the book's lines that way on the chart beside the English.

Materials

Six jar-line cards per group, one printed line to a card
A long paper strip per group to lay the cards on
Twenty paper dollar cards per group
An arrow strip and a marker per group
Word cards: plus, equals, minus

Standards & curriculum

These lessons are being matched against curricula now.

2. How Much More to Twenty Concept · Finding how many more dollars a total needs to reach twenty, by counting on or by counting the empty squares of a twenty-frame

The book fixes a goal on its first page — the ball costs twenty dollars — and then measures the distance to it twice in Ella's own voice and leaves it unmeasured four more times at stops whose totals it prints. Pairs build a jar total on a twenty-frame, one square to a dollar, and read the answer off the squares that stay empty. They start where the book has already done the work, at eleven dollars and nine to go, so the method can be checked against a printed answer before it is trusted on its own. Then they take the two stops the book skipped and prints nothing near: eight dollars, which needs twelve, a number that does not occur anywhere in this book in figures or in words, and sixteen dollars, which needs four. The gap at sixteen is the one the story answers for itself a page later, because four dollars is exactly what grandma pays and the frame comes out full.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Read the one gap the book works out (4 min)
Read the three sentence cards in your pair: the price of the ball, the line that leaves the jar at eleven, and what Ella says she still needs. Say which number is the money in the jar — it is the number the line ends on, not the one it starts with — and which number is the price. Then lay eleven dollar cards on the twenty-frame, one to a square, and count the squares that stay empty. Say whether your count and the book's nine are the same.
Word preview: still, more
That ball costs $20.
$8 plus $4 minus $1 equals $11.
I still needed $9.
2. Work the two gaps the book leaves out (6 min)
Clear the frame and build eight dollars, which is where the jar stands on Thursday night. Count the empty squares aloud and write the number in the first box of your strip. Clear it again and build sixteen, which is where the jar stands on Sunday night. Count and write. Say your two answers back to your partner in whole sentences, the way Ella says hers.
Word preview: more
3. Find the payment that fills the frame (5 min)
Leave sixteen dollars on the frame with the empty squares showing. Read the sentence that says what grandma paid and lay that many cards into the empty squares, one at a time, counting as you go. Say whether the frame came out exactly full, or over, or short — and then say why the book can tell you a sentence or two later that the money was enough.
Word preview: enough
And she paid me four dollars.
That was enough for my soccer ball.
4. Say the gap sentence for a stop of your own (5 min)
Pick two dollars or five dollars — the two stops in this book that have a total printed and no answer written anywhere — and build your stop on the frame. Count the empty squares and say the whole sentence Ella would have said: I still needed ___ dollars. Your partner checks it by counting the frame twice, once for the full squares and once for the empty ones, and saying whether the two counts together make twenty.
Word preview: still

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Read the one gap the book works out (4 min)
Read the three sentence cards, say which number is in the jar and which is the price, then build eleven on the twenty-frame and count the empty squares against the book's nine.
Word preview: still
I still needed $9.
2. Work the two gaps the book leaves out (5 min)
Build eight on the frame and count the empty squares, then build sixteen and count again. Write both answers and say them back in whole sentences.
Word preview: more

Three levels

Support: Work the sixteen and nothing else. Put sixteen cards on the frame, leave the four empty squares showing, and count them by ones with a finger on each. Then lay grandma's four cards into those four squares one at a time and count the frame full to twenty. One gap, counted once forward and once as it closes, is the whole of the work.
At Grade: The book's own gap of nine rebuilt on the frame and checked against the printed nine, then the gap at eight and the gap at sixteen counted and written, grandma's four dollars laid into the four empty squares to fill the frame exactly, and one more stop of the child's own choosing said as a whole sentence and checked by a partner counting both halves of the frame to twenty.
Extension: Put all seven stops in a row — one, two, five, eight, eleven, sixteen, twenty — and write the gap under each one without touching a frame: nineteen, eighteen, fifteen, twelve, nine, four and none. Then write under those how much the gap shrank from one stop to the next: one, three, three, three, five, four. Find the two days that closed the biggest pieces of it and say which days they were.

English learners

More does two jobs in English and this book uses only the harder one. In I needed nineteen more and I still needed nine, the number is the distance left to go, not money anybody handed over; a child who hears more as a payment will start hunting the page for a nineteen-dollar job. Keep the frame where everyone can see it while the sentence is said, so that the empty squares are the thing the word is pointing at. Rehearse the frame I have ___ dollars, so I still need ___ more. Invite children to say the gap in their strongest language and write both sentences under the frame so the two forms sit together.

Materials

A twenty-frame per pair, one square to a dollar
Twenty paper dollar cards per pair
Three sentence cards per pair carrying the ball's price, the line that leaves the jar at eleven, and what Ella still needs
A recording strip per pair with a box for each stop
Word cards: more, still, enough

Standards & curriculum

These lessons are being matched against curricula now.

3. The One Minus Reasoning · Deciding whether an event puts money into a jar or takes it out, and saying why one line of the book subtracts

Ten payments in this book have a sentence of their own and nine of them move the same way. Groups read all ten on cards and sort them into a tray marked in and a tray marked out, and the out tray finishes with a single card in it: the dollar spent on gum at the store. The one other movement of money, the allowance in chapter one, is given as an amount and never as a payment anybody is described making, so it is not a card; it is the single dollar already sitting on the mat when the counting starts. They then find, among the six lines the book prints, the only one that carries a minus, and point from the minus to the card, saying aloud that the two are the same dollar. The last half of the lesson makes the reason testable rather than merely stated: counting every in card onto that one dollar and stopping at twenty-one shows what Ella would have held with no gum in the story, and twenty-one is a dollar more than the ball costs, so the book's closing sentence would no longer be true. Children finish by saying, in one sentence with both words in it, why that afternoon's line needs a plus and a minus and none of the others do.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Sort the ten money cards (5 min)
Read the ten cards aloud in your group, one at a time, and put each one in the tray marked in or the tray marked out. Ask the same question of every card: did this money come to Ella, or did it leave her? Do not count anything yet. When you have finished, say how many cards are in each tray.
Word preview: paid, only
Will gave me $4 from his allowance savings.
My favorite gum was only $1.
2. Find the line that shows the out (5 min)
Spread the six jar lines in front of your group and find the only one with a minus in it. Put your finger on the minus and your other hand on the card in the out tray, and say out loud that they are the same dollar. Then say which part of the book that line belongs to and what Ella bought.
Word preview: minus
$8 plus $4 minus $1 equals $11.
3. Count what she would have had with no gum (5 min)
Take the gum card right out of the sort and put it face down. Put one dollar card on the mat to begin with, because that is the allowance Ella already had before anybody paid her for anything. Then count the dollars from every card in the in tray onto it, saying each running total aloud, and stop when the cards run out. Say the number you land on. Then say how it compares with the twenty dollars the ball costs, and how much would have been left over.
Word preview: paid
That ball costs $20.
4. Say why that line needs both signs (5 min)
Each child says one sentence with both words in it: money came in and money went out on the same afternoon, so the line has a plus and a minus. Then answer as a group: if somebody rubbed the minus out, what number would the book's last line end on, and what would be wrong with the sentence Ella says at the end?
Word preview: plus, minus
Finally, I had twenty dollars.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Sort the ten money cards (5 min)
Read the ten cards aloud one at a time and put each one in the tray marked in or the tray marked out. Say how many cards ended up in each tray.
Word preview: only
My favorite gum was only $1.
2. Find the line that shows the out (4 min)
Find the only one of the six jar lines with a minus in it, put a finger on the minus and a hand on the card in the out tray, and say that the two are the same dollar.
Word preview: minus
$8 plus $4 minus $1 equals $11.

Three levels

Support: Sort five cards instead of ten, with the gum among them, reading one card aloud at a time with both trays on the desk. The question does not change — did this money come in or go out — and the child still has to find the one card that is not like the others and say what makes it different.
At Grade: Ten cards sorted into in and out and the trays counted, the single minus found among the six printed lines and matched by finger to the card that caused it, every in card counted onto the mat from its starting dollar up to twenty-one and compared with the ball's twenty, and a sentence from each child that uses both words to say why one line needs two signs.
Extension: Rub the minus out and rebuild the end of the book. Write what each of the last three lines would say with no gum in the story — twelve, then seventeen, then twenty-one — and say what would be wrong with the sentence the book finishes on. Then say what Ella could have done with the dollar she would have had left after buying the ball.

English learners

In and out carry whole verbs in English here: money came in, money went out, and the direction is a small word tacked on the end where it is easy to lose. A good many languages use a different verb for each direction instead, so a child can sort every card correctly and still not produce the phrase. Do the sorting first and attach the two words to the trays rather than to the sentences, so that pointing at a tray is already saying the word. Rehearse the frame The ___ dollars went ___, so the line needs a ___. Ask children for the two words their strongest language uses for money arriving and money leaving, and write those on the trays beside the English.

Materials

Ten money cards per group, each carrying one sentence from the book and the amount it moves
Two trays per group, one marked in and one marked out
The six jar-line cards per group
Twenty-two paper dollar cards per group
Word cards: plus, minus, only

Standards & curriculum

These lessons are being matched against curricula now.

4. What One Day Paid Application · Adding the two or three payments made on one day into a single amount, then adding that day's amount to a running total

Ella is paid more than once on three of the days this book names, and the book never adds a day up: it drops the separate payments straight into the chapter's line. Pairs put each day on its own mat and do the adding the book skipped. Thursday is two dollars for keeping Aiden busy and one more for cleaning up after him, which is three. Sunday is two dollars and two dollars from the twins for the bracelets and a dollar of allowance, which is five. Saturday is the awkward one and the interesting one: four dollars in from Will and one dollar out at the store, which leaves three. Each day total is then checked against the printed line it belongs to by counting on from the number that line begins with — five and three is eight, eight and three is eleven, eleven and five is sixteen — so the book, not the teacher, says whether the day was added up right.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Collect Thursday's pay (5 min)
Find the two payments Aiden's mom made and lay them on the Thursday mat as two separate piles of dollar cards, saying what each pile was for. Then push the two piles together and count the whole thing aloud. Write the number at the top of the mat. That is what Thursday was worth.
Word preview: extra, paid
She paid me $2 to keep Aiden busy while she worked.
Aiden's mom gave me an extra $1.
2. Collect Sunday's pay, then Saturday's (6 min)
Sunday first. Lay one pile for each bracelet the twins bought and one more for the allowance, count them together, and write the number on the mat. Saturday next, and it does not work the same way: lay the money Will handed over, then take away what the gum cost, and count what is left on the mat. Write that number too and say aloud which of the two days had money going both ways.
Word preview: each
They paid me $2 each.
My favorite gum was only $1.
3. Match each day to its jar line (5 min)
You have three day totals and three jar lines. Match them by counting on first: put your finger on the number a line starts with, count on by the day's total, and see whether you land on the number the line ends with. Two of your days are worth the same amount, so counting on alone will let you put either of them on either line, and that is the catch. Settle it by looking at the numbers in the middle of each line and checking that they are the payments on your mat. Say each match aloud as you make it — five and three is eight, and the two and the one in the middle are Aiden and the tidying up.
Word preview: plus, equals
$5 plus $2 plus $1 equals $8.
4. Say the day sentence (4 min)
Each child picks one day and says a whole sentence about it: on ___ Ella was paid ___, which is ___ dollars altogether, and that took her jar from ___ to ___. Name every payment in the second gap, so Sunday gets three of them and Thursday two. If you pick Saturday you will need different words in the middle, because one of the amounts went the other way. Say what you changed and why.
Word preview: paid

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Collect Thursday's pay (5 min)
Lay the two payments Aiden's mom made as two separate piles on the Thursday mat, say what each was for, then push them together and count. Write the number at the top of the mat.
Word preview: extra
Aiden's mom gave me an extra $1.
2. Match each day to its jar line (4 min)
Count on from the number each line starts with by Thursday's three and see where you land. More than one line will take a three, so settle it by checking that the numbers in the middle of the line are the two payments on your mat. Say the match aloud as you make it.
Word preview: plus
$5 plus $2 plus $1 equals $8.

Three levels

Support: Take Thursday and leave the other days alone. Lay two dollar cards for keeping Aiden busy and one more for cleaning up after him, in two piles far enough apart to be two things. Name each pile aloud, slide them together and count three. Put those three against the line that starts on five and count on with a finger: six, seven, eight. One day, two payments, one line.
At Grade: Thursday's two payments and Sunday's three laid out as separate piles and pushed together, Saturday's one payment in and one payment out worked as a taking away, all three day totals written on the mats, each one matched to its printed line by counting on from the number the line begins with and then settled against the payments in the middle of that line, because two of the days are worth the same, and a whole sentence from each child naming the day, the payments, the total and where the jar moved to.
Extension: Do the two days this lesson leaves out. Wednesday is one dollar for Barney's bath and the Monday in chapter four is four dollars for grandma's garage. Say why neither of those days needs anything pushed together. Then name the only day in the book where money went both ways, say what it was worth once both amounts were counted, and say what it would have been worth if Ella had walked past the store.

English learners

Each and extra both add here, and neither of them says so. Each in they paid me two dollars each fixes two dollars as the price of one bracelet, so two bracelets are two payments; extra in an extra dollar means a dollar on top of what was already handed over, not another name for it. Both words are unstressed, both sit at the edge of the sentence, and neither has a plus in it anywhere. Put the cards down twice before either word is explained — two piles for two bracelets, two piles for the two things Aiden's mom paid — and let the second pile be what the word means. Rehearse the frame two dollars each means ___ and ___. Invite children to say how their strongest language marks a price for one of a set, and write that form beside the English.

Materials

A day mat per pair, headed Thursday, Saturday and Sunday
Twenty paper dollar cards per pair
Three jar-line cards per pair
Word cards: each, extra, paid

Standards & curriculum

These lessons are being matched against curricula now.