WOW! Bank @ Home Ways to explore the bank at home! The Bank: Our bank exhibit offers children the opportunity to work with money and money sense. They can pretend to be a banker or a drive through bank customer. Try these activities at home to inspire your young banker. Counting cupcakes A counting game using cupcake liners! Write an amount in the bottom of the cupcake, like 18 cents, 28 cents, etc. And allow your child to fill each liner with the designated amount of money. Scoop and count Using a bowl full of coins and a spoon, scoop out a pile of coins and count together how many coins you have. Play against each other by seeing who can scoop more! Can I buy my lunch? Using a recycled menu, or create your own, allow your children to explore buying their lunch. Use labels like: milk $1, sandwich $2, and so on. Chore chart A great way to get children responsible for their own money is to give them the opportunity to earn it. This is a great activity to do together to let the child have some choice in the chores on the chart. Ideas of chores are: dish washing, folding laundry, pick up pet poop, vacuuming, or sweeping. Cha-Ching! Let your child give a cashier the money when you go to the store. It will emphasize the real-life connection between money and buying things. Hot Cross Buns Sing the song Hot, Cross, Buns. In this song, they mention money and the cost of the buns. This can open the door for open ended discussions with your child! For your infant and young toddler: Your infant and young toddler are just beginning to be introduced to the concept of "trading" things for other things, and the tactile experience of handling money. Use these activities to explore further!
Coin sort Allow your child to sort through coins and arrange them in their like groups. This activity requires adult supervision unless you are using large, non-chokeable, coin models. Money Slime Make your own slime using your favorite slime recipe and add coins into the slime. Or, using play-dough, push coins into the slime and find them again. Sensory coin bin Fill your sensory table with flour, cloud dough, oatmeal, or rice, and disperse coins throughout. Allow your child to dig, scoop, and sift through the sensory table to find the coins. Sing 5 Little Ducks The song 5 Little Ducks begins to introduce numbers and subtraction as each duck goes away. Use your hand or props to represent the ducks going away. Count a lot! Try to count together several times a day. Using props or your own fingers. Engaging in continual counting activities, prepares children for the counting that will come later in their life. Bank Experiments and projects Donut Shop (age 4-8) Long sheet of butcher paper Construction paper Markers Paper plates Play or real money Scissors Paper pad & pencil 1. Use a marker to draw boxed areas for donuts, icing, and sprinkles 2. Add a space for students to build the donuts and use the pad and pencil for adding up the cost 3. Cut out several donuts, icing, and sprinkles 4. Determine the cost of the donut, the icing, and the sprinkles 5. Begin building your donuts! Allow your child to add up the cost of your donut Your child has the chance to be put in the role of shop owner! You can build on this activity by adding different food or materials elements. Feel free to add in costumes, bills for the shop, and maybe even your own donut stand in your neighborhood. There are so many ways to explore money!
Make your own abacus (age 3-10) 6 wooden popsicle sticks 2-3 bamboo skewers cut into 6 3 ½" pieces (cut off the pointy end) 30 plastic beads (make sure they are large enough to slide easily over the skewers) Hot glue gun 1. Lay down one popsicle stick and lay glue down its top face, the whole length 2. Lay the ends of the bamboo skewer sticks in the glue 3. Apply glue to a second popsicle stick, along its face 4. Place it glue side down on top of the bamboo skewers, sandwiching the bamboo skewers between the two popsicle sticks. Squeeze tightly, allow the glue to set. 5. Place 6 beads along each skewer 6. Place glue along the face of another popsicle stick, attach it to the opposite end of the first side, add glue to another stick, and, once more, sandwich the bamboo skewers together between the two sticks 7. You've got your abacus! An abacus is a tangible way for your child to add and subtract using the beads and sliders. You can help them to work out simple math problems using their abacus. You can create patterns, openended questions, and extended number sense in this activity. Make a math tray (age 0-5) Child friendly manipulatives like: seashells, rocks, pinecones Magnetic numbers or paper numbers Playing cards Jumbo dice This is really an open-ended activity, here are some ideas: 1. Roll the dice, you can use 1 or 2 dice, lay out the manipulatives in the amount that matches the dice 2. Match the magnetic numbers to the numbers on the playing cards 3. Count the seashells, count the pinecones 4. Match the dice with the playing cards 5. Sort your manipulatives
This is an entirely open-ended activity and can be expanded upon depending on the age of your child and can be done with many different materials. A math tray is a wonderful resource to have on hand if you've run out of ideas for play and are needing some help! Shower curtain ring count (age 2-6) Shower curtain Marker Easy-open shower rings 1. Write numbers along the top of your shower curtain, where the rings would typically go (make sure you have enough shower curtain rings!) 2. Hang your curtain (over a counter, bookshelf, or anywhere that it can easily stay without falling) 3. Your child will hang as many rings as is written on the end of the curtain! E.g. if the written number says 4, they will hang 4 rings beneath the number Your child will notice the written number has a tangible amount connected to it. They will begin to recognize the numbers and you can count together. You can expand on this by creating an addition game, adding the numbers along your shower curtain together. Jar of job opportunities (age 2-10) Large mason jars, approximately 3-4 Tongue depressor sticks, as many as you'd like! Marker 1. Determine what chores you'd like your child to help with, some chore ideas are: fold clothes, wash the car, clean the bathroom, wash windows, cook simple meal with supervision 2. Write your chore longways on the side of the tongue depressor, write a dollar amount at the top of the depressor 3. Place all your chores in the jars and allow your child to choose a chore! Harder chores earn more money Allowing your child to help around the house helps their self-esteem. The feel competent when they are sweeping, folding laundry, etc. Helping around the house gives them a sense of accomplishment! They also feel like they are part of a team! The family team all together, chipping in. If that's not enough, research has shown that children given chores early in life become more independent adults.
Create your own piggy bank! (age 3-10) Mason jar Paint Construction paper Scissors 1. Paint your mason jar! Allow your child to be creative! Help support painting processes with younger children 2. Using the lid, measure a circle on your construction paper, draw a rectangle in the middle, cut out the rectangle 3. Put your construction paper underneath the screw top, now you're ready to save! Giving your child the opportunity to save their own money to purchase the things they desire, instills a sense of ownership. They earned the money, they chose their toy, I.e. they earned the toy themselves! It also creates a realistic viewpoint that if your child wants things or experiences, they cost money, earning money takes work and patience. Lastly, your child will have more gratitude for what they have because they earned it themselves. Say good bye to lost or broken toys! (We hope!) Reading Connections: Follow the Money! Loreen Leedy Bunny Money Rosemary Well Lots and lots of Coins Margarette S. Reid