Year 4 · Money and pocket money
Coins, notes, pounds and pence
Convert between different units of measure, for example kilometre to metre and hour to minute
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Convert between different units of measure, for example kilometre to metre and hour to minute
Key learning points
- • The coins and notes
- • One hundred pence in a pound
- • The money decimal point
- • Comparing prices
This lesson at a glance
- 20 minutes
- 18 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- No marked quiz yet
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Introduction
Part 1 of 18
Visual introductionPicture this
Coins, notes, pounds and pence
British money has two units: pounds and pence. Once you know how they fit together, every price tag in every shop makes sense.
In a nutshell
Convert between different units of measure, for example kilometre to metre and hour to minute
What you already know
Part 2 of 18
Before we start
What you already know
You can count in tens and hundreds and add two-digit numbers.
Key words
Part 3 of 18
Key words
Words you'll need today
- pence
- The small unit of money. 100 pence make one pound.
- pound
- The big unit of money, written £. One pound is 100p.
- decimal point
- The dot in £2.50 that separates pounds from pence.
Learning cycle
Part 4 of 18
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 — Pounds and pence
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 18
Learn
The coins and notes
The coins are 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2. The notes are £5, £10, £20 and £50. Every coin and note is made of these building blocks, so any amount is a mix of them. Three 20p coins and a 5p make 65p. A £2 coin and a £1 coin make £3.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 18
Learn
One hundred pence in a pound
100p is exactly £1. So 150p is one pound and fifty pence, and 205p is two pounds and five pence. When pence go past 99, they overflow into pounds — just like ones overflowing into tens in place value.
Quick check
Part 7 of 18
Quick check
How many pence are in £1?
Reset break
Part 8 of 18
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 9 of 18
Quick check
What is 140p in pounds?
Learning cycle
Part 10 of 18
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 — Writing money properly
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 18
Learn
The money decimal point
We write money with a dot: £2.50 means 2 pounds and 50 pence. The two digits after the dot are always pence, so £2.05 is two pounds and five pence — not fifty pence. That middle zero matters: £2.50 and £2.05 are very different amounts.
Explore the idea
Part 12 of 18
Learn
Comparing prices
To compare £3.45 and £3.09, look at the pounds first — they are equal — then the pence: 45 beats 09. So £3.45 costs more. Always line the decimal points up and compare column by column, exactly like comparing four-digit numbers.
Quick check
Part 13 of 18
Quick check
How much is a 50p, a 20p and a 5p?
Quick check
Part 14 of 18
Quick check
Which is written correctly?
Common mix-ups
Part 15 of 18
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- Reading £2.05 as 'two pounds fifty' — the zero holds the tenths of a pound.
- Writing £1 as £1.100 instead of £1.00 — there are only ever two pence digits.
- Counting coins instead of values: three coins can be worth less than two coins.
Challenge round
Part 16 of 18
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Mastery quiz
Part 17 of 18
No quiz for this one
This lesson has no marked quiz attached yet.
Lesson round-up
Part 18 of 18
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
Not sat
Games
Not played
Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
The cost of a school trip
A school is planning a trip to a wildlife park. The coach costs £480 however many people go. Entry costs £9.50 for each pupil and each adult goes free. The school says every pupil must pay the same amount, and the trip must not lose money.
If 60 pupils go, the coach works out at £8 each, so the total for each pupil is £17.50. If only 40 pupils go, the coach works out at £12 each, so the price rises to £21.50. The teacher explains that the coach is a fixed cost and the entry is a cost per person — which is why the price per pupil changes when the number changes.
The school decides to charge £20 and to use anything left over for a second trip later in the year.
Written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Work out the total cost of the trip if 50 pupils go.
- Show why the price per pupil falls when more pupils go, using numbers.
- At £20 each, how many pupils must go before the trip makes money? Show your working.
Working out
Working outDo the practice questions on paper, showing every step — not just the answer. Mark them yourself and circle anything you got wrong.
10–15 questions
Worked example, explained
WritingCopy one question out and write underneath, in words, why each step works.
1 question, 4–5 sentences
Problem in words
Working outWrite your own real-life problem that uses today's method, then solve it.
1 problem + solution
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 18 · Introduction