Money detectives: check a $20 bill's security features, grade 4

1. Ask: "How can a store know a bill is real?" Collect ideas.
2. Explain that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing makes all U.S. paper money and adds features that are hard to copy. Show the feature page for the $20.
3. The adult holds the $20 up to the light. Students look for the faint portrait and the thin strip running from top to bottom.
4. Tilt the bill slowly. Students watch the 20 in the lower right corner change color.
5. Pass the magnifying glass for the tiny printing. Then compare with the $1 bill: which features are missing?
6. Students draw an outline of the $20 and label three features with arrows.

Safety: the adult holds the real bills and collects them at the end. Students never handle money that is not theirs.

Differentiation: students who need support label only the watermark and the color-shifting 20. Students who are ready read the chart for the $10 and $50 notes, whose security threads glow orange and yellow under ultraviolet light (read about it; no lamp needed). English learners can use a word bank: watermark, thread, tilt, light.

Quick check: ask a student to name two features they can check on a $20 without any tools.

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