Year 4 · Money and pocket money

Adding up prices

Convert between different units of measure, for example kilometre to metre and hour to minute

20 minutes4 checks6 exit questionsNational curriculum objective

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

• Keep the units apart
• Line up the dots
• The nearly-a-pound trick
• Estimating first

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

convertmeasurekilometreminutenearly-a-pound

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 18 · Intro6%

Introduction

Part 1 of 18

Visual introduction

Picture this

Adding up prices

Shopping is adding. If you can add £1.25 and 80p in your head, you always know what you are about to spend before you reach the till.

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 add two-digit and three-digit numbers and know 100p = £1.

Key words

Part 3 of 18

Key words

Words you'll need today

total: The whole amount after everything is added.
price: What one item costs.
mental maths: Working it out in your head, no paper needed.

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 18

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 — Adding pence and pounds

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 18

Learn

Keep the units apart

Add the pounds and the pence separately, then join them. For £2.40 + £1.30: pounds give £3, pence give 70p, so the total is £3.70. If the pence add past 100, swap 100p for £1: £1.80 + 50p gives pence of 130, which is £1.30, so the total is £2.30.

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 18

Learn

Line up the dots

On paper, write the prices with the decimal points lined up and add like ordinary column addition: £1.25 + £0.80 is 125 + 80 in pence = 205p = £2.05. Thinking in pence turns money addition into addition you already know.

Quick check

Part 7 of 18

Quick check

£1.25 + 80p =

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.

Stop here for now

Quick check

Part 9 of 18

Quick check

£2.40 + £1.30 =

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 18

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 — Tricks that make it easy

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 18

Learn

The nearly-a-pound trick

If something costs 98p, think £1 and take away 2p at the end. So £2.50 + 98p is £3.50 minus 2p = £3.48. Rounding up then adjusting is faster than carrying digits in your head.

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 18

Learn

Estimating first

Before you add exactly, estimate: £2.95 is about £3 and £1.10 is about £1, so the total will be about £4. If your exact answer comes out at £9.05, you know you slipped. Estimating first is how grown-ups catch till mistakes too.

Quick check

Part 13 of 18

Quick check

£1.80 + 50p =

Quick check

Part 14 of 18

Quick check

About how much is £2.95 + £1.10?

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 18

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

Adding pounds and pence as one flat number, so £2.40 + 30p becomes £2.43.
Forgetting to swap 100 pence for a pound when the pence overflow.
Treating £1.05 as £1.50 because the zero is easy to skip.

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

Best run

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Do 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.

Article

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 out
Do 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
Writing
Copy one question out and write underneath, in words, why each step works.
1 question, 4–5 sentences
Problem in words
Working out
Write your own real-life problem that uses today's method, then solve it.
1 problem + solution

Write your answer, notes or working here

Saved as you type.

Photos of paper work, diagrams or working outHow many minutes did the written work take?

Part 1 of 18 · Introduction

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Back to your Year 4 units, or a few minutes of quick practice.

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