A Shopping

We Will Go

Prekindergarten

Grocery Store and

Food Project

Beginning The Project

Students had been asking when they could

use the shopping cart they’d noticed in the

classroom.

As we noticed their interest in previous

dramatic play experiences was decreasing

we decided to place the shopping cart

and a few grocery boxes in the dramatic

play center.

We thought the

grocery store was

a worthy topic

because of both

the children’s

experiences with

shopping and the

close proximity of

the store-

permitting a field

trip.

Concepts ExploredMoney and exchanging goods

Vocabulary practice and building

Recording ideas (making a list)

Foods, food pyramid and food groups

Trying new foods

Healthy and unhealthy foods

Sorting food and objects

Cooperation and problem solving (through Dramatic Play)

Family Involvement

Involvement in this project was encouraged in

several ways:

Students were asked to bring grocery boxes to

add to our store

Families were asked to donate items for or store

(e.g. cash register, flyers, reusable bags, etc.)

Parents were asked to join us on our store tour

and recycling walk field trips

Events from our project were posted on our

classroom blog for viewing

Developing The Project

It didn’t take students long to notice the

shopping cart and boxes and to begin

playing store.

After observing them

playing for a short while

we began to ask them

what else they might

need or want in their

store.

This led to the creation of

a class web of items they

thought they would need in the store.

One item on our list was

a cash register.

The next day we

provided students with

the classroom cash

register and

demonstrated how to

use it.

After exposure to the cash

register students quickly

noted that we needed

money for our store.

To solve this problem

several students decided to

make their own money to

use at the store.

After several days of

playing with their made bills

for the store we did locate

some play money for

students to use also.

Continuing Interest

To spark continued interest in the

store we read students several stories

and gave them the task of listening

to the stories and looking at the

illustrations to get new ideas for our

grocery store.

The story Caillou’s

Shopping Trip by,

sparked an interest in

creating signs for our

store to organize the

different items we were

collecting.

Shelf sign added to

organize items in

the store, just like in

the story.

The story Put It On The List-

sparked an interest in

writing shopping lists.

We provided students with

paper, pencils, and markers

so they could begin making

their own shopping lists.

Store Tour

As our classroom store

continued to develop

we arranged to take

walk with students to a

local grocery store to

study parts of the store

and items in the store.

Store Tour

Continued…

Students enjoyed touring the many different parts

of the grocery store.

To add additional purpose to our visit following the tour

students were divided into smaller groups and given a scavenger like

list and an iPod to record what they found in the

store.

Grocery Store Hunt

Students busy hunting in

the store.

Discussing our store visit

and what we found the

next day.

Eating A RainbowOur grocery store project

coincided with St. Patrick’s Day

and as students expressed an

interest in rainbows we decided to

expand our project to incorporate

food.

We read the story Eating the

Alphabet by Lois Ehlert and then

found a variety of fruits and

vegetables to represent a rainbow.

Students enjoyed trying a variety of

new foods and expanded their

vocabulary.

While making our vegetable and fruit

rainbows we:

• learned new vocabulary

• recognized colours

• sequenced different foods

• tried eating new foods

Unhealthy and

Healthy Food

Eating our rainbows

began a discussion on healthy and unhealthy

food.

To expand on this we

read several stories

including; Gregory the

Terrible Eater, Berenstein

Bears Too Much Junk

Food, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Retelling

The Very

Hungry

Caterpillar.

Painting

The Very

Hungry

Caterpillar.

Representations of Learning

“Make food;

apple, nanna,

orange,

pancake.”

Making food with

our playfoam.

Trying to mix

purple to paint

some grapes.

Reading Now I Eat

My ABCs and

trying to find letters

from our names.

Using store

flyers to

create a

shopping list.

Representations of Learning Continued…..

Cooperating and sharing

while playing store.

Retelling The Very Hungry

Caterpillar.

Concluding The Project

Anticipating the upcoming school break and

observing diminishing interest in the grocery

store we discussed with students closing the

store and explore something new.

Closing the store meant we had to do

something with all the boxes we had

collected….

Several students mentioned that they recycle their

boxes at home.

Noticing that we did not have a big enough

recycling bin at school we discovered there were big recycling bins we could walk to.

Students began to help us disassemble the boxes

and sort them.

Our sorted grocery

boxes and items.

Walking to the recycling bins.

Reading the print on the

bins.

Sorting our

play food

into food

groups.

Displays of our Learning