Super Maths for the Supermarket

As I was shopping in the supermarket with my children I realised that there are a whole host of learning opportunities that it offers. This post will focus on numeracy (maths) skills - maybe after next weeks trip I'll look at literacy or another development area!

So here are some of our teaching and learning experiences:

• Counting; ask your child to get a certain number of an item e.g. get me four carrots or count how many are in the packet e.g. counting the three peppers in the sealed bag
• Number recognition; what numbers can they spot - the aisles are numbered as are the tills (checkouts), look for the numbers on packaging e.g. the number of eggs in the box or the number of pints in the bottles of milk;
• Size comparisons; which is biggest / smallest, longest / shortest
• Weight; which is heaviest / lightest, how much does it weigh? (in stores that allow you to weigh your produce)
• Simple story sums; we've got three potatoes and one more makes? if there are four of us for dinner and we are going to two sausages for dinner how many do we need altogether?
• Identifying 3D shapes; for example, tins are cylinders, cereal boxes are cuboids and oranges are spheres

And for older children you can introduce money questions and budgeting questions

• which one costs more / less?
• how much for two?
• how much change do you get?
• price comparisons - if six yoghurts cost £3 and four cost £2.20 which yoghurts are cheapest?