Counting and Grocery shopping

Since we were talking about grocery shopping this week, I thought it would be nice to do something fun with identifying and counting fruits.

Preschoolers

Give them the simple and clear instructions, it will be such fun and a pleasure to have them around. Give them each a shopping list, with very specific requirements, such as 5 ripe tomatoes (which means soft), 1 litre of milk, 500g of broccoli, 6 unripe (means hard) pears (learn vocabulary)… you can get the idea.

So are you ready for shopping with your preschoolers?

  • Step 1

Plan your shopping day, i.e. Wednesday

  • Step 2

Plan your time to leave for the grocery shopping. Let them know in advance the time you are leaving. Point to them the long and short hand of the clock and let your child know that when the short hand points to a certain number they have to come and get you.

  • Step 3

Get your child to help you with the shopping list. Let them know the things that you would like on the shopping list. For example, give your children the responsibility for getting apples and milk. If your child is not reading yet, use old catalogues and cut the pictures of the apples and milk and paste them on the shopping list.

If you would like a richer exercise, you can be a bit more specific; you can say SIX RED APPLES for example. So your child will cut out 6 apples he/she can find from the catalogue; if your child is able to write and identify number 6, then he/she (or you) can write down 6 next to the apples. If not, get your child to cut out six apples or draw apples to make 6.

As for the milk, do the same exercise as above. If you want to create more challenges, state that you want 2 liters milk but you want it in a bottle and not a carton. Note you are stating “volume – 2 liter” and they have to identify “bottle’.

So let’s sum up what your child will learn from this exercise:

  • Step 1 – Your child will learn the day of the week.
  • Step 2 – Your child will learn about time and reading numbers.
  • Step 3 – Your child will learn quantity, indentify number, colour, volume and terms of carton and bottle.

You can use this concept with your older primary school children. Change the task and make it a bit challenging. They will love the challenge…and it’s a fun and a very inexpensive outing!

By involving your children, you can create connections with them through this fun challenge!

One more very important thing, always finish off a challenge with a REWARD! My reward is that they can each choose ONE item that is no more than $2 from the shelf (or save the money as pocket-money).

Happy counting and learn through FUN!