Getting Ready
To familiarise students with money and its value:
- make Australian play money (banknotes and coins) available in the classroom
- collect advertising brochures featuring priced items
- set up a class ‘shop’.
Some activities in this resource require access to a SMART Notebook interactive viewer .
Items for the class shop
The class shop could include:
- clean, empty containers and packages with price tags rounded to the closest dollar or ten cent value
- plastic food items
- stickers for pricing items
- a toy cash register
- recyclable shopping bags.
Encourage students to play with the money and shop items. Discuss items which might be most relevant to a particular culture or have text in a language other than English.
To direct the play set problems related to the shop
Set problems relating to the shop and suited to the individual student's abilities and needs. Problems might include:
- I have $10 to spend what can I purchase?
- How much will it cost for a bottle of milk and a tube of toothpaste?
- I have $20 and I want to buy the box of cereal valued at $5. How much change will I get?
- I want to buy a pack of pens for $5, a bottle of shampoo for $5 and washing detergent for $10. I only have $10 how much more money will I need?
- I have $20 but I need to keep half of it to give to my brother. What item can I buy with my half?
Encourage students to make up their own problems related to the shop items. Where relevant students can seek answers to their problems from others in the classroom.
Use magnifying glasses to examine Australian banknotes and coins and discuss the features including the different banknote sizes.