Money Math · Lesson Plan
Exchanging Foreign Currency to US Dollars
A companion money-math lesson on converting in the other direction — from a foreign currency back into US dollars. Students apply an exchange rate to find how much foreign money is worth in dollars, reinforcing decimal operations.
For Teachers
Lesson at a glance
- Topic
- Money Math
- Grade Level
- Grades 6–9
- Resource Type
- Lesson + Worksheet
- Estimated Time
- 30–45 minutes
- Format
- Reading + practice worksheet
- Materials
- Printable lesson, worksheet, calculators
What Students Learn
Learning objectives
- Explain what an exchange rate is
- Describe how and why people exchange money when traveling
- Convert a foreign currency amount into US dollars
- Apply decimal operations to conversion problems
- Compare converting to vs. from US dollars
Materials
What you’ll need
- Printed copies of the lesson and worksheet (one per student)
- Calculators
- Whiteboard or projector for worked examples
Key Terms
Vocabulary
- Exchange rate
- How much one currency is worth in another.
- Currency
- The money a country uses.
- Convert
- To change an amount from one currency to another.
- Foreign currency
- Money used in another country.
- US dollar
- The currency of the United States.
- Decimal
- A number with a fractional part after a point.
For Teachers
Lesson plan
Estimated time: one 30–45 minute class period.
Lesson sequence
- Introduction (5 min). Ask what a traveler does with leftover foreign money when they get home. Introduce converting back to dollars.
- Read the method (10 min). Students read how to apply an exchange rate to convert foreign money to dollars.
- Worked example (10 min). Convert a foreign amount to US dollars using a sample rate.
- Worksheet (12 min). Students practice; the answer key is included for teacher use.
Assessment
Assess the worked example and worksheet practice.
Use the rates in the worksheet as practice values; real exchange rates change constantly.
Discussion
Discussion questions
- Why might you need to convert foreign money back into dollars?
- How do you use an exchange rate to convert to US dollars?
- How is this different from converting dollars into foreign currency?
- Why might some countries accept US dollars and others not?
- How can you check that your answer is reasonable?
Printable Lesson & Worksheet
Exchanging Foreign Currency to Dollars — Lesson & Worksheet
Printable lesson plus practice problems, with an answer key for teacher use.
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