This week, in connection with our current unit of inquiry, we explored both the role of numbers (their function) and how we use numbers in play by thinking about numbers in shopping. We read the book Bunny Money, in which a brother and sister rabbit go shopping to buy a birthday present for their Grandma. As they shop, they have to consider the cost of different items and keep track of how much money they have. Afterwards, we discussed setting up our own role-play shop in the classroom.
This connected nicely with what the children have been naturally doing during their play. Some children helped prepare the cash we would need by adding numbers to special “KG1 money” notes, while others created price tags for the items we planned to sell in our shop. The children enjoyed taking on these important jobs and were excited to use both the money and the shop products in their role-play the following day.
These learning engagements—the creation of the money and price tags, as well as interacting with numbers through role-play shopping—helped the children make connections between numbers and everyday life. Through their play, they began to understand how numbers help us organise activities, communicate information such as prices and quantities, and make sense of real-world situations.
