SCARF at home – Activities for 5-7-year-olds

What your child will be learning about…

Different jobs around the home and how they can help
Taking responsibility in making something grow
The importance of looking after things that belong to themselves or to others
That different notes and coins have different monetary value

What you can talk about together…

Why do we need money?
Where does money come from?
How many different jobs can you think of that need to be done in this room?
Who does different jobs around the home?
Why do they do those jobs?
How can you help?
How do you think you’ll feel when you have helped?
How do plants grow? What do they need?

What you can do together…

Activity 1 - Getting to know money

On a mat or tray, place different items all relating to money. These can include: coins, notes, debit/credit cards, till, price tags/labels, receipts, purses/wallets, piggy bank.

Can you tell me anything about these things?
What have you heard about money?
Where do we use money?
What does it look like?

Follow this with a discussion about money. Prompts you could ask are:

What do we do with money?
Why do we need money?

Look closer at the coins and notes. See whether the children recognise any of the coins.

Ask:

Can you find the numbers hiding on the coins?
Can they tell those which are worth more than others?

Work together, encouraging your child to take the lead to order the coins from the lowest value to the highest. It might help to draw a number line for your child to refer to.

Extra ideas

Set up or create a role play shop/stall. Make the children a part of ‘opening up’ and organising the shop. They can make signs and price labels. The actual price of items doesn’t need to be accurate but it could provide an opportunity to discuss which items are more expensive than others and to have the price labels reflect this.

Give your child a purse/wallet of money (you can use play money or make your own) to use when they’re in the shop so they have to consider how much money they have when they choose what they want to buy. Some children may need support in selecting the correct coins.

When playing in the shop, encourage the children to compare how much things cost.

Ask questions such as:

Why do they cost more?
What can you buy lots of?

Playing ‘shop’ is also a great way to model and discuss manners and the importance of saying, ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.

Encourage your child to play independently, using soft toys as customers.

Read The Great Pet Sale by Mick Inkpen - there are several video versions available online.

This book is a great way to encourage counting out the coins as each price is mentioned. (You’ll need a pile of pennies.)

Activity 2 - Helping around the home

This activity is designed to help your child to understand that there are jobs that they can help with around the home and to motivate them to help.This can be a frustrating issue for many parents and lockdown may have highlighted the issue even more. The activity will work best when you are feeling as calm as possible. If now is not the right time, perhaps choose one of the other activities and come back to this one another time.

Ask your child to make a list of some of the jobs that are done at home. Can you list 10? Even more? Have a chat about who usually does each job. You could write names next to the jobs.

Does the list look fair? Are the jobs shared out?

Which jobs help everyone in the home and which are to help an individual?

Have a chat about those jobs that are for the benefit of everyone and those that benefit just one person (like making their bed). Who should do that job if they are able to?

Highlight or draw a line under any jobs that your child could safely help with.

Here's a list of ‘Age appropriate chores’, created by child development experts from NHS Tayside:

Ages 4-5

Feed pets • Wipe up spills • Put away toys • Make the bed • Tidy bedroom • Water indoor plants • Prepare simple snacks • Use hand-held vacuum • Clear kitchen table • Dry and put away dishes

Ages 6-7

Fold towels • Dust/Mop floors • Empty dishwasher • Match clean socks • Weed garden • Rake leaves • Peel potatoes and carrots • Make salad • Replace toilet roll

The idea is that this will give you some guidance as to what a child might be capable of at a given age. If your child is not used to doing any jobs or has got out of the habit, then it will be helpful to take small steps, adding one or two jobs at a time and a change in habits will take time to consolidate. Praise is a huge motivator and can take the form of verbal or non-verbal cues, such as smiles or thumbs-up and sticker or tick charts.

You can print one of our ‘Help pledges’ or make your own and encourage your child to decorate their pledge, which can be put on display to motivate your child.

Activity 3

Involving your child in making snacks and meals can help build their self-esteem and also encourage healthy eating. Children, especially when they are young, enjoy feeling that they have ‘jobs’ to do. Try to praise for the effort even if the task isn’t completed perfectly. That way they’ll be more likely to try again.

This recipe for Fruity Crumble is easy to make and will help your child feel like they are making a contribution to helping look after their family. Remember to encourage your child to help with the tidying up after making and eating the crumble. Enjoy!

Activity 4 - Plant project

Harold the giraffe talks about plants, what they need, how we can grow and care for them and also some simple ways of growing things, with just old carrot tops!

You'll find an introduction to this, including a link to a BBC film about plants and what they need in Harold's Daily Diary 5th of May 2020.

And on the next day Harold shows children how to grow their own carrot tops.
Harold's Daily Diary 6th of May 2020.

Find some more ideas about growing things on a windowsill, in a yard or in a garden.

SCARF values I thought about...

Which of the SCARF values did the activities include?

You can point to these, or if you're making a SCARF journal you can write them down and tick those you did. There's no right or wrong answer! It's up to you to decide!

Safety

Caring

Achievement

Resilience

Friendship

About SCARF at Home activities

Information for parents and carers before you start using the SCARF at Home activities

Your child's school is sharing some activities with you to help keep children happy and healthy while they're at home. The activities support children's PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) education and have been provided by the UK's largest children's charity specialising in children's health and wellbeing, Coram Life Education and SCARF.

Coram Life Education and SCARF help schools to teach children valuable life skills needed to keep them happy, healthy and safe.