Holidays

Presidents’ Day Craft: Kid Coins

After explaining to my children what Presidents’ Day is all about and looking at presidents on our coins, we decided to try a shrinky dink project to make our own currency! This is an incredibly simple 10-minute project perfect for any day. My six-year-old daughter decided that she should be worth $10 (and have pink hair).

I think it would be fun to make a lot of these “kid coins” to use as currency in your household. Say, each kid can earn coins for good behavior and spend them at the end of the week for special outings or other privileges. It’s great to have the kids invested in the process (so to speak).

All you need are shrinky dinks and colored pencils.

Instructions:

First, cut a circle from the shrinky dink plastic. For our project we used a 2 1/2″ circular hole punch and ended up with a shape just larger than a quarter, so you can experiment with different sizes for your coins.
Next, have your child draw a self-portrait with pencils. With an older child, this may be a good time to talk about profiles in portraiture. With my six-year-old, I just went for the straight-on image. If you are using any numbers or text, be sure to write them in mirror image so they will read correctly on the shiny side.
And last, shrink the plastic according to the package instructions.

And in case you need a refresher, here are the presidents on our everyday coins. My daughter asked why there were no women on coins, and though I told her about Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea, it was pretty obvious who’s been in charge around here! Time to change that someday soon, I hope. But for now, enjoy your long weekend.