But first, stage the room!
Don't forget the conveyor belt. A simple piece of black construction paper taped to the table. I print play money on card stock. As it gets warn out it sort of starts feeling like real money.
Adorable shopping carts at Zulily for $3!
Baskets made out of paper plates. labels are card stock.
First I let the Littles explore their own-size grocery store. They were busy all morning and I could not distract them with any other activities. They didn't even want to go outside! They got quite good at naming the produce though most was already familiar to them.
Then I added shopping lists. This was easy peasy, done on a draw program. I divided the paper into quarters and made a short list and pasted clip art next to it to help my littles read. I laminate everything with clear contact paper because it's cheap like me.
Word wall
Interactive Felt Board Games
Match foods that go in the pantry, Refrigerator, and the freezer. I started off with clip art of a pantry, refrigerator, and a freezer. Then I added pictures of foods that belong in each. I got a little carried away with this, it really only takes 3 or 4 of each category. I printed them on cardstock and laminated them with clear contact paper and added a tiny piece of velcro to the back so it sticks to the felt. To play I hand each child a few pictures and let them decide where they go.
Vegetables, where do they grow?
Mini Felt Board
To go with the book Growing Vegetable Soup.
Books
In the Bag
Bags make fun games. I do this a lot. For this game I used brown lunch bags. I put a whole fruit or vegetable (except the celery) in each bag and labeled the bag so I would know what was in it. I asked the children to hold each bag to get an idea of it's weight. Then I selected a child to put their hand in the bag and describe what the item felt like. In the case of the onion I asked the Littles to smell their hands afterwards. Now guess what's in the bag. I got a lot of wild guesses but not to many right answers. We'll have to do this again.
Add a digital scale
Plant Potato Eyes
Read The Enormous Potato and plant a potato eye.
Better yet, have every child plant a potato eye!
Sand pails from the dollar store work great. They have them in stock from just before Easter through the summer months.
If you don't have a potato with roots growing in a basket in your pantry, put a couple in a paper bag and set them aside for a couple of weeks. This happens rather quickly then you are ready to cut your potatoes into chunks making sure there is adequate root on each piece. Once the potato is cut, even toddlers can do 100% of this by themselves!
A Little Math
Bags make fun games. I do this a lot. For this game I used brown lunch bags. I put a whole fruit or vegetable (except the celery) in each bag and labeled the bag so I would know what was in it. I asked the children to hold each bag to get an idea of it's weight. Then I selected a child to put their hand in the bag and describe what the item felt like. In the case of the onion I asked the Littles to smell their hands afterwards. Now guess what's in the bag. I got a lot of wild guesses but not to many right answers. We'll have to do this again.
Add a digital scale
We went through all seven fruits and vegetables recording each's weight. This they could do all day!
Make Fruit Salad
Disposable plastic knives are just sharp enough to cut some fruits. assign the little different fruits to cut. As they do, have magnifying lenses close for examining the outsides, the insides, and the seeds. Allow a little tasting. Then throw it all in a big bowl and add a little vanilla yogurt.
Read The Enormous Potato and plant a potato eye.
Better yet, have every child plant a potato eye!
Sand pails from the dollar store work great. They have them in stock from just before Easter through the summer months.
If you don't have a potato with roots growing in a basket in your pantry, put a couple in a paper bag and set them aside for a couple of weeks. This happens rather quickly then you are ready to cut your potatoes into chunks making sure there is adequate root on each piece. Once the potato is cut, even toddlers can do 100% of this by themselves!
A Little Math
Use the printed play money to practice counting when "purchasing" groceries. It looks an awful lot like real money.
Then pull out the change jar, does everybody have a change jar in the back of their closet? Spill out the change on the table and start counting. Count out five pennies and put a nickle beside them. These are equal. Then two nickles beside one dime. The nickles and dimes present a neat opportunity to try counting by fives and tens. My Littles did not get this but one day they will.
Free puzzles!
Music
Going to the Market, Greg and Steve
Fruit Salad, The Wiggles
Apples and Bananas, Raffi
Banana Phone, Raffi
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