Grocery Store

Students work together to create a grocery store in the dramatic play centre. Using classroom resources, recycled materials, books, and pictures for inspiration, they design features such as store shelves, baskets, signs, labels, flyers, and price tags. Children take on the roles of customers, cashiers, and stock clerks as they read signs and labels, write shopping lists and receipts, locate products, and engage in conversations during imaginative play.

• Support students in planning the grocery store by asking questions and using books, pictures, and flyers to spark ideas 
• Encourage students to discuss what materials, products, signs, and roles are needed in the store 
• Record students’ ideas and plans so they can refer to them during play 
• Introduce and reinforce vocabulary related to groceries, shopping, food, pricing, and store organization 
• Join the play as a customer, cashier, or stock clerk to model oral language and extend interactions 
• Model how to create grocery store print materials such as signs, labels, shopping lists, price tags, and receipts 
• Support early reading by encouraging students to read signs, labels, product names, and flyers 
• Support early writing by encouraging students to listen for and record the sounds they hear in words when creating signs, lists, and receipts 
• Ask questions to deepen learning (e.g., “What sign does this shelf need?”, “Can you find bread on the flyer?”, or “What sounds do you hear in milk?”) 
• Extend learning by encouraging students to create advertisements, loyalty cards, coupons, or new store departments 

• Grocery store props (e.g., play food, baskets, shopping bags, cash register) 
• Grocery flyers, food images, books, or other environmental print materials 
• Writing materials (e.g., paper, pencils, markers, clipboards) 
• Materials for creating signs, labels, shopping lists, receipts, and price tags 
• Play money, coins, cash register 
• Recycled materials for building store displays, shelves, and other store features