Nine Gold Coins

Introduction

Watch a twelve-minute video, a reading of "Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins" with illustrations.

Activity 1

Do a bean-bag throw. Use a basket, hoop, or tape on the floor - or even a pair of shoes! - as a target and practice throwing bean-bags into them, just like St. Nicholas threw his pouch of coins into the girls' shoes.

Activity 2

Sort coins by size, colour, or denomination. Find the gold ones! Make patterns with them; gold-silver-gold-silver, or big-big-small-big-big-small, et cetera. Count out nine coins and divide them into three even groups.

Look at the pictures of Byzantine coins from St. Nicholas' time, found in the attachments. How are they different to modern coins in your country? How are they the same? What about modern coins in other countries?

Lunch Snack

Eat round, coin-shaped foods, such as banana slices on rice cakes.

Activity 3

Make up a batch of gingerbread dough. Form it into balls and flatten them (or roll out and cut with a round cookie cutter) and, for extra time or fun, use a skewer to draw Byzantine (or local) coin face designs on them.

Activity 4 

Print out, cut, and glue the round icons (found in the attachments) to the foil wrappers of chocolate coins.