Wacky Wednesday: Grocery Store

Wacky Wednesday:

Grocery Store

• Items Needed:  Expired coupons, old store ads, empty boxes(cereal, pudding, juice, pasta, cake or brownie, tea, etc), empty containers(spices, egg, shampoo, bubbles, butter, yogurt, plastic peanut butter jar, oatmeal, water, etc.), Cardboard box(use as counter, shelving units), toys, office supplies and school supplies, magazines, newspaper construction paper, markers, shopping bags, plastic bottles, tape, coins(poker chips or cardboard), purse or wallet, small child's apron, basket or shopping cart, calculator, small shoe box, cardboard, TP tubes, small square cardboard jewelry box, tape, glue, empty paper towel tube, stryofoam(fits on top of paper towel tube), glue gun, paint,  can get cardboard grocery store or house at places like kmart, walmart, menards, craft places(kids get to color them and play inside them), for a shopping cart(use something like a play stroller or push toy, something with wheels and use cardboard to build a cart with duct tape to hold it up and dowel rods)
• Be sure boxes, cans, cartons, etc., are clean.  Check items for sharp edges.
• Set up a store.  Categorize the items and arrange them by section in your child's store.

1. Use boxes for checkout counter, shelving units, refrigerator or freezer section.
2. Let your child decorate their store.

• Set up a checkout counter:

1. Tape down black construction paper laid down on the box for the conveyor belt.  
2.  Use play money(like poker chips or homemade coins.)  If possible, bring in a toy cash register and some calculators. 
3. Toy cash register: If not, you can use a shoebox and a calculator.  they can decorate the shoe box with construction paper.  Draw a fake calculator on top of box for them to pretend they are pushing buttons.  You can use foam paper to write the numbers on and stick them to the box, so that way they feel like real numbers.  You can also cut out a little slot at the bottom of the box and make a  drawer that can slide in and out, use a handle for them to pull the drawer open and shut.  
4. Homemade coins: 

Gold Coins: Cardboard, coins, pencil, white paper, foil, green construction paper

Coins: Find three or four coins and place them under a thin sheet of paper.  Rub over the paper with a soft pencil, so the patterns of the coins appear on the paper.  Make as many coins as you want.

Then, cut out the coins and glue them to a piece of thin cardboard.  Cut them out again.  If you want, make a rubbing for each side of the coin.

For foil coins: place coins on paper and trace around them.  Cut out the coin shapes and wrap them with foil.

Paper bills: Place a dollar bill on a sheet of green paper and trace around it.  Repeat, making as many bills as you want.  Draw a face and dollar amount on the bills and cut them out.

1. Make sure to have a little red scanner section on the checkout counter for them to scan the prices.
2. Make a microphone for them if they need to call for price check or clean up on aisle 5. To make a microphone: you have to have 2 TP rolls, foil, glue or tape, yarn, paint: Cut a notch at the top of one tp roll so the other tp roll rests in it.  Paint both tp rolls.  Let dry.  At the bottom of the notched tp roll, make 4 slits around the tube, so that you can bend them backwards and tape them to the counter(like tabs).  Then take a piece of foil and roll it into a ball and place it on top of the other tp roll, you can secure it with tape or glue.  Glue a piece of yarn at the end of the microphone to make it look like a wireless microphone.

• Make a hand-held scanner: TP tube, Small jewelry box, tape, red paint, construction paper

1. Cover tube and box with paper anything but red.  Secure with tape or glue.
2. Cut 4 slits at the top of the tube.  Bend back the tabs and tape or glue box onto tube(try to glue or tape the box at the edge of the tube, so that it sticks out.)
3. Paint a red line across the box, to make it look like the red scanner.

• Set up signs for sales and the name of their store(you could tape the store sign across a door frame)
• Set up for your child to use paper, plastic or recycled bags
• Purse or wallet
• If you want, you can put construction paper around full or empty cans and your child can make up their own labels and names of foods
• Have expired coupons, old receipts(or printable calculator) and store ads available for your child to use too.
• Have your child make a shopping list when they shop.
• For the grocer, they can put on an apron and pretend away. They can even decorate their own apron too using paint and Fresh vegetables and apple stampers.  Just cut up some vegetable and fruit stampers and dip them in paint and place on apron.  Cut an apple sideways and you will see a star pattern.  Mushrooms are cool to use.  You can cut any design in a potato like a star pattern.  You can use a carrot like a rolling pin. Celery looks cool in the paint too.  
• Ask your child to run to the store and get some ingredients for supper.
• Make sure to take lots of pictures.  

Printable Grocery Store Activity and Coloring Pages:

• Super Coloring Pages Website
• Everything Preschool Website
• Piggly Wiggly Website
• Printables 4 Kids Website (Math Worksheet)

Books:

• Maisy Goes Shopping by Lucy Cousins
• Just Shopping With Mom by Mercer Mayer
• What's In Grandma's Grocery Store by Hui-Mei Pan
• Tommy At The Grocery Store by Bill Grossman

Songs: 

What Will You Buy

(Tune: Farmer In The Dell)

What will you buy? What will you buy?
What will you buy At the grocery store?
Jars and Cans. Jars and Cans.
Jars and Cans at the Grocery Store.
Apples and bananas. Apples and bananas.
Apples and bananas At the grocery store.
Meat and Veggies. Meat and Veggies.
Meat and Veggies at the grocery store.

Idea: Make up your own verses

Clipping Coupons

Clip, Clip, Clip Your Coupons
Clip them up, Clip them up
And take them to the store!

Shopping Song

A shopping we will go, a shopping we will go.
We will buy some vegetables, a shopping we will go.
A shopping we will go, a shopping we will go,
We will buy some cinnamon buns, a shopping we will go.
A shopping we will go, a shopping we will go.
We will buy some wonderful snacks, a shopping we will go. 

All three songs were found on the website Everything Preschool

Wacky Wednesday: Grocery Store