Theme "Money"

[Anna]

What are some activities that I can do with my preschoolers pertaining to the theme "money?"

[Sheryl]

I just introduced money with our President's Day theme. I bought some play money at the dollar store. It came in $1, $5, $10, and $20. On Monday, we kicked off the week by talking about whose pictures where on coins. Then each day of the week, during circle we talked about different coins/bills. I set up a table with a couple of $1 bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies with magnifying glasses for them too look for hidden things. There are red and blue fibers in bills. I had two that were easy to see without the magnifying glass, but it was more interesting with them. Also, if you look at the coins, there are initials by the collars of the president picture which are the initials of the person who make the stamp/drawing of the president. We also talked about the value of the coins, but didn't get too in depth. A few were able to figure out how many pennies it would take to equal a nickel, etc. Tuesday - Friday, I gave out a bill to each student and they got to put in their cubby to take home, if they had inappropriate behavior they had to give it back to me and had to be better to earn it back. It was an amazing week of excellent behavior!

I also set up a clothing store in dramatic play with play money too, made from construction paper. This has been a hit. I bought a few "new" items at Goodwill and of course, left the tags on them. I even purchased clip on earrings some necklaces to compliment the clothing along with placing a full size mirror in the corner. The boys have taken the role of the store owner while the girls have been shopping. The boys have even been telling the girls how beautiful they look in the clothes that they picked out and even helped adjust hats, etc.