Currency
As part of our monthly theme from Mother Goose Time, It’s a Small World, we took a closer look at currency from around the world.
We talked about how much simpler it is to carry money to purchase what we need and want as opposed to trading items. The kids were particularly amused by the idea of carrying around goats and horses to trade.
We also compared some coins from Mommy’s wallet to some coins from around the world.
Exploring Coins
We spent time just looking at the coins.
We identified the presidents found on the most commonly used American coins.
- penny – President Abraham Lincoln (American Civil War)
- nickel – President Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of Independence)
- dime – President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Great Depression)
- quarter – President George Washington (America’s first president)
We read the short stories about these presidents found in What Your Preschooler Needs to Know and What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know.
We also balanced and rolled the coins.
Then we sorted the coins and discussed their monetary value.
- penny = 1 cent
- nickel = 5 cents or 5 pennies
- dime = 10 cents or 10 pennies or 2 nickels
- quarter = 25 cents or 25 pennies or 5 nickels or 2 dimes and a nickel
Shopping
Using pretend money from Mother Goose Time, we spent time purchasing items from a pretend store.
Stuffed animals (i.e. the pet store) made the most revenue.
The felt kitchen with a variety of “play cooked” items was also a big hit.
Coin Play
Coin Etchings
The kids really enjoyed etching coins.
My daughter was able to stabilize the coins underneath the paper well without assistance and create several etchings.
The boys were then happy to guess which coin was hidden under her paper.
I taped a few coins to the bottom of a piece of paper for the boys, but it still took some finesse to create the etching without going through the paper. Thus, we pulled out the play dough and made coin impressions.
Play Dough Coin Impressions
My kids are big on mixing the play dough colors together to create new varieties.
If you choose to make coin impressions, I recommend using light colors and avoiding blends.
White and orange show the most detailed and identifiable impressions.
The kids loved guessing which coin had made the impression and made several of their own.
The kids then spent some time discussing and designing a coin of their very own.
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What have you been up to in your preschool this week?
