Possible student responses

• If you have 1 penny, you can buy a gumball for 1 cent.
• If you have 4 pennies, you can put them in 2 stacks of 2 pennies.
• If you have 5 pennies, you can trade them for 1 nickel.
• If you have 9 pennies, you have 9 cents.
• If you have 10 pennies and spend 2 of them, you would have 8 pennies.
• If you have 8 pennies, you could trade 5 pennies for a nickel and have 1 nickel and 3 pennies.

Teacher Story: “At first, my students seemed unsure of how they should respond. It helped to provide an “if-then” sentence structure to give children some ideas. I started a response for them by saying, “If I have 2 pennies, then…” I had children complete the sentence several different ways so that it was clear that I was not looking for a particular correct answer. Once they understood that there were many different ways to complete the sentence, they seemed to be more comfortable with their responses. “