Supermarket Grocery Shopping Pretend Play Set-Up

I saw some toy shelves for supermarket pretend play at the toy shop last week. I thought it is a very good idea to display the products on a shelf and make the set up look more like a supermarket. But the toy shelf cost a bomb. I found some wooden boxes at home and stack them together like shelves. And I display the supermarket goods as below. Some pictures for memory.

I set up two cashiers, one for Little FECS and one for Baby FECS :-)

This activity can get messy with cleaning up, so brave yourself and choose a day, when you have more surplus and are not in the rush to clean up together with your child. Cleaning up is part of learning for your child too, so it's not time wasted :-)

Below is a re-production of the lesson plan from my previous post reproduced here for convenience:

Age: From 4 years old

Objective(s):

1. A fun way to learn:

- number recognition
- counting
- addition
- subtraction
- uses of money
- personal financial management

all into one

Materials:

1. Goods
2. Price tags
3. Toy cash register
4. Money (If you don't have toy money, you can photocopy real money, make it an activity for your child to cut it out, or cut it out for younger children)
5. Shopping basket (optional)
6. Some rough paper and a pen (optional)

Directions:

1. Collect various empty supermarket goods' packaging such as tea, pasta, rice, cheese, eggs, salt, milk, jam, ice-cream box, can food, etc.

2. Arrange them with price tag on a mat. Start with the numbers you want your child to learn. For example, I am revising 1-20 with J, and slowly to 100. Each day, I will concentrate on 20 numbers at a time.

3. Set up the counter with the cash register.

4. Display the price of the items.

5. Start by being the shopper, then take turn to be the cashier and the shopper.

6. As the shopper, point to an item and ask your child how much it costs. He should read the number and tell you the answer.

7. Say the item you wish to buy and give your child that item to scan into his cash register. Reinforce your child's learning by asking him to enter the price into key pad of the cash register. Verify if he has entered correctly. (J loves this the most. At times, when I could not get him to repeat or write the number after me, I would ask him to enter into the cash register the correct number.)

8. Give your child the right amount of money and ask him to verify that it is correct. To increase the level of difficulty later in the game, give your child a bigger note and ask him how much change he should give you back. This teaches the child subtraction and also money management.

9. Put the item that you have bought in your shopping basket.

10. Continue this for a few items and change roles thereafter.

Tips:

1. You can buy two things at the same time and ask your child how much they cost in total? For example choose an item costing $2 and another item costing $4. Ask your child how much in total you should pay him, and let him advise you. Then give him the amount of money he asked.

If he asked for an incorrect amount, revise the addition with him by writing down on paper:

2+4=6

2. Increase the difficulty of this game by increasing the number of items you wish to buy at a single time and invite your child to sum them up.

Additional Information:

J requested for to play Grocery Store or Supermaket Pretend Play often, but it is not my favorite activity, because it is time-consuming and boring for me. I realized that it is because our play has been rather haphazard, messy and a little lacking in purpose. After a few rounds of experience, I have come up with a more fun and clear lesson plan and will quickly jot it down here, before I forget.

Since J loves this so much, to inspire me and excite me to play this game with zest and with my whole heart with him, I think it is worth for me taking the time to make it more structured and more educational. Usually everything I commit to making a lesson plan, I am also more commited to play with J, instead of mommy yawning and falling asleep :-)

This game is very useful in teaching number recognition, counting, addition, subtraction, uses of money and even personal financial management. Oh, why didn't I start working on this earlier, instead of simply making J do more Maths worksheet and Montessori! All because I dreaded to prepare this pretend play! I can't wait to try with J tomorrow!

Gauge as you go along, and be careful not to make it too academic that it loses its fun. I have the tendency to be so.

References:

Here are some links to other ideas with Grocery Play:
http://www.educatall.com/page/442/Grocery-store.html
http://www.preschoolexpress.com/theme_station05/nov05_grocery.shtml
http://www.ehow.com/info_8497233_preschool-activities-supermarkets.html

Without price tags for the younger kids

With price tags for the older kids

Supermarket Grocery Store Pretend Play

Age: From 4 years old

Objective(s):

1. A fun way to learn:

- number recognition
- counting
- addition
- subtraction
- uses of money
- personal financial management

all into one

Materials:

1. Goods
2. Price tags
3. Toy cash register
4. Money (If you don't have toy money, you can photocopy real money, make it an activity for your child to cut it out, or cut it out for younger children)
5. Shopping basket (optional)
6. Some rough paper and a pen (optional)

Directions:

1. Collect various empty supermarket goods' packaging such as tea, pasta, rice, cheese, eggs, salt, milk, jam, ice-cream box, can food, etc.

2. Arrange them with price tag on a mat. Start with the numbers you want your child to learn. For example, I am revising 1-20 with J, and slowly to 100. Each day, I will concentrate on 20 numbers at a time.

3. Set up the counter with the cash register.

4. Display the price of the items in number order clearly on another mat. This helps to reduce confusion and mess. Tip: Use a paper-clip to organize the notes.

5. Start by being the shopper, then take turn to be the cashier and the shopper.

6. As the shopper, point to an item and ask your child how much it costs. He should read the number and tell you the answer.

7. Say the item you wish to buy and give your child that item to scan into his cash register. Reinforce your child's learning by asking him to enter the price into key pad of the cash register. Verify if he has entered correctly. (J loves this the most. At times, when I could not get him to repeat or write the number after me, I would ask him to enter into the cash register the correct number.)

8. Give your child the right amount of money and ask him to verify that it is correct. To increase the level of difficulty later in the game, give your child a bigger note and ask him how much change he should give you back. This teaches the child subtraction and also money management.

9. Put the item that you have bought in your shopping basket.

10. Continue this for a few items and change roles thereafter.

Tips:

1. You can buy two things at the same time and ask your child how much they cost in total? For example choose an item costing $2 and another item costing $4. Ask your child how much in total you should pay him, and let him advise you. Then give him the amount of money he asked.

If he asked for an incorrect amount, revise the addition with him by writing down on paper:

2+4=6

2. Increase the difficulty of this game by increasing the number of items you wish to buy at a single time and invite your child to sum them up.

Additional Information:

J requested for to play Grocery Store or Supermaket Pretend Play often, but it is not my favorite activity, because it is time-consuming and boring for me. I realized that it is because our play has been rather haphazard, messy and a little lacking in purpose. After a few rounds of experience, I have come up with a more fun and clear lesson plan and will quickly jot it down here, before I forget.

Since J loves this so much, to inspire me and excite me to play this game with zest and with my whole heart with him, I think it is worth for me taking the time to make it more structured and more educational. Usually everything I commit to making a lesson plan, I am also more commited to play with J, instead of mommy yawning and falling asleep :-)

This game is very useful in teaching number recognition, counting, addition, subtraction, uses of money and even personal financial management. Oh, why didn't I start working on this earlier, instead of simply making J do more Maths worksheet and Montessori! All because I dreaded to prepare this pretend play! I can't wait to try with J tomorrow!

Gauge as you go along, and be careful not to make it too academic that it loses its fun. I have the tendency to be so.

References:

Here are some links to other ideas with Grocery Play:
http://www.educatall.com/page/442/Grocery-store.html
http://www.preschoolexpress.com/theme_station05/nov05_grocery.shtml
http://www.ehow.com/info_8497233_preschool-activities-supermarkets.html

14 April 2014

 

Updates 13 October 2019:

I saw some toy shelves for supermarket pretend play at the toy shop last week. I thought it is a very good idea to display the products on a shelf and make the set up look more like a supermarket. But the toy shelf cost a bomb. I found some wooden boxes at home and stack them together like shelves. And I display the supermarket goods as below. Some pictures for memory.

I set up two cashiers, one for Little FECS and one for Baby FECS :-)

Fun Uses for Food Packaging... and Outdated Namecards

Don't just throw away your supermaket packaging. Also don't throw away your outdated namecards. They are very fun real props for Grocery Shopping Play, instead of buying fake toys:

Some suitable packaging of items to keep would be salt box, tea, milk carton, corn flakes cases, dish washing tablet box, cheese packaging, ice-cream packaging, etc.

The trick is to find the smallest size packaging possible, as they take up less space, cuter to look at and is friendly to the child's small hands.

You can supplement it with some can food.

My namecards were outdated due to the office address change. I used the back of them to tag price for the "grocery items" at our "Supermarket"- this play served as a very fun and useful way to revise numbers with J and even for teaching addition. I will share more in another post the lesson plan for Grocery play.

Montessori Activity: Grocery Shopping with Toddler (Part 2)

Inspired by Montessori Moments

Age: From 2 years old

Objective(s):
1. To teach life skills.
2. To teach language skills.

Directions:
1. Find a time when the supermarket is not super-crowded.

2. Together with your child, fetch the child's shopping cart (if not available, just use the shopping basket).

3. Ask your child to look for the items in the grocery list and tick them off after the items are found one-by-one.

Tips:
1. When your child can read, or is learning to read, you can add the corresponding words into the grocery list.

2. Name the item with your child as you shop.

3. Let your child select some items off the display.

How to Make a Grocery List for Toddler?

Just download pictures from the web. For your convenience, you can download J's grocery list which I have made here.

Additional Information:
J has been helping me to do grocery shopping for some weeks now, and he is becoming very good at it. I will ask him to pick the item I name or if he can't reach it, I will pick the item and hand it to him to put into the shopping cart. He will then push the shopping cart, and following behind me, while I go on to pick other items. Grocery shopping so far has been very pleasant. I try to choose the time, when he is not hungry or sleepy.

I think it may be a good time for me now to introduce a grocery shopping list, which I learned from http://www.mymontessorimoments.com/. I have prepared the J's grocery list for him. Ideally, it should be a one page list, but I got carried away, and made a 4 pages grocery list!

I tried out the grocery list with J on 21.5.2011 (2Y2M15D). I placed the shopping list in the front of the shopping cart and asked J to look for one item on the list (oranges). He tried to do so, but I had to guide him along the way to where the oranges were placed, as the shopping market is very big. He enjoyed the grocery shopping as always, and I could feel that he felt very proud pushing the shopping cart all by himself, putting the packet of milk into the shopping cart and when he saw the oranges. unfortunately, my camera gave up on me half-way through, so I won't be able to take pictures from now on until we buy a new camera.

References:
http://mymontessorimoments.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/grocery-shopping/
http://www.anamazingchild.com/kates%20blog/files/d290349c1f665d4720d523b822f71a15-67.php#unique-entry-id-67

Montessori Activity: Grocery Shopping with Toddler (Part 1)

Age: From 2 years old

Objective(s):
1. To teach life skills.
2. To teach language skills.

Some tips:
1. Find a time when the supermarket is not super-crowded.

2. Before entering the supermarket, I find it helpful to tell J that he will be helping mommy with grocery shopping and that he should listen to mommy. When mommy says time to leave, he should do so and not say no or throw a tantrum. Otherwise, he would not be given this privilege of helping mommy next time. He needs to earn his credibility. He understood.

3. Whenever I have a little more time to spare, I would give J the kid's size trolley as shown above or if they are not available, a basket.

4. For lower shelves which the he can reach, I will name the item and tell him to pick the item and put it into the trolley.

5. For items beyond his reach, I will take the item and give it to him and ask him to put it into the trolley by saying "J, please put the banana into the trolley".

Additional Information:
J (2Y19D) and mommy had a great time at the supermarket after church today. This was the first time, he was matured enough for a full grocery shopping activity. He did his duty with great pride. I picked most of the items, gave it to him to put into the trolley. I moved forward, and he followed behind. So nice to have hands free for me, and a "personal shopper" behind me :-)

We passed by the milk section. I took a carton of milk, and J could recognized that it was for Daddy. He said, "Daddy". Then he asked for the milk for J, by saying "J". I was quite amused that he could notice the difference. Daddy drinks the 1.5% low fat milk, and J drinks the 0.1% skimmed fresh milk. J of course could not tell the difference in fat content, but he recognized the blue packaging for Daddy's and the grey packaging for J.

I forgot to buy oranges which he loves, and only remembered on the way home. I told J that mommy and J forgotten to buy oranges. He laughed and said "ya". I told him that I will buy them tomorrow, and since we forgot to buy oranges, we could not have orange juice this evening. He understood and said "ya", though I half wondered whether he really understood what it meant. This evening I tested him, and he indeed did not pester us for freshly squeezed orange juice, which he usually would. So he seemed to have understood the concept of mommy forgotten to buy oranges.

31 August 2018 (2Y3M15D): Baby FECS pushing the shopping trolley for the first time.