She is not at the playground this evening. 1) She went shopping. - Past simple implies an action completed in the past, so she went shopping and completed her shopping. 2) She has gone shopping. - Present perfect simple implies an incomplete action, so she went shopping earlier but is still shopping now so she could not come to the playground. In this case, I would choose "She has gone shopping".

For a past action, we would need to know when it happened. "She is not at the playground this evening. She went shopping half an hour ago." (We have moved from present tense to past tense, so we also need to change the time markers.) I agree that "has gone" is more suitable, because we stay in the present timeframe: "She is not at the playground this evening. She has gone shopping." (Remember that Present Perfect describes the present, not the past.)

Hi! The difference is quite big. The past simple is for completed actions. Ex : I saw John yesterday. That is why "She went shopping " is not used with the context "She is not at the playground this evening. " She is not at the playground this evenig (now), she has gone shopping (now)

Yes, both are fine. (2) is probably more natural, as it explains why she is not there now. The perfect case includes the present.