This family is off to the grocery store to get all the fixings for a special feast.  Follow them through the store as they pick out the foods they will need.

Materials

• Ahead of time send a note home asking parents to send in empty clean food packages of their child’s favorite food items.
• Grocery cart picture
• Grocery store flyers
• Paper or fabric grocery bags

Vocabulary

• Feast (a large special meal where everybody comes together to eat)
• Prepare (to get something ready)
• Plump (a little bit fat)
• Pie (a baked dessert with a crust)

Before Reading the Story

           Ask the children who they eat their meals with at home (I eat with the TV set on, I eat with my brother, I eat with my family).  Hold up the book and ask the children if they can tell where the family is.  Ask the children why people go to the grocery store (To buy food, to get candy).  How do you remember what you need to buy at the grocery store? (My Mom does, you write it down).

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating; progresses in abilities to initiate and respond appropriately in conversation and discussion with peers and adults. AND Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops ability to identify personal characteristics, including gender and family composition.

Reading the Story

            As you read, draw attention to the numbers found on each page.

Mathematics/Number & Operations; begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways.

After Reading the Story

Put many plastic foods into a basket.  Recite the following poem as you give children a turn to follow your directions.

A tisket, a tasket, a lovely shopping basket.

Can you find the carrot?  The carrot?  The carrot?

(pick different foods for the children to find in the basket)

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

Discovery

           Hang a food pyramid near your lunch table. When your meal comes, talk to the children about where each food item belongs on the pyramid.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds an awareness of basic health and safety rules such as fire safety, traffic and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities.

Music and movement

           Teach the children the tune to Choo’n Gums’ verse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUXN0yynPxI

My Mother gave me a nickel,

To buy a pickle

But I didn’t buy a pickle

I bought some chewing gum

 (Give each child a food picture and when it’s their turn they can name the food picture they have.  Pass a nickel around as you sing the song)

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Sing to chorus of Take Good Care of Yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOS5eNg4J-4

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds an awareness of basic health and safety rules such as fire safety, traffic and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities.

            Ask the children if they can curl like spaghetti, wiggle like jello, melt like a ice cream, and be sticky like peanut butter.

Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & Problem Solving; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task, or problem. And Language Development/Listening & Understanding; understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.

Blocks

           Bring in some clean and empty food containers (box of cereal and can of beans).  Let the children add these to their blocks to build with.  Encourage them to read the letters on the various labels.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors. AND Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; identifies at least 10 letters of the alphabet, especially those in their own name.

Art

            Give children a grocery cart page.  They can either draw foods in the basket or cut from magazines.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors. AND Literacy/Early Writing; begins to represent stories and experiences through pictures, dictation, and in play.

Library and Writing

            Work with the children to cut out the labels from the food packages that the children bring in.  Mount them to the wall and label it Our Favorite Foods.  Hang a nutrition pyramid beside it and help the children locate where the foods go on the pyramid.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors. AND Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; builds an awareness of basic health and safety rules such as fire safety, traffic and pedestrian safety, and responding appropriately to potentially harmful objects, substances, and activities.

Sand and Water

            Put plastic fruits and vegetables in the water table for the children to wash.

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; increases abilities to sustain interactions with peers by helping, sharing, and discussion.

Dramatic Play

           Add grocery lists. (What would you like to buy at the grocery store today? What kinds of items does your parent buy?) Add grocery store flyers and coupons.  Add some brown paper grocery sacks.    If you have enough food packages you could set up a small grocery store.

Literacy/Early Writing; develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes. AND Social & Emotional Development/Self-Concept; begins to develop awareness of self in terms of specific abilities, characteristics, and preferences.

Math and Manipulatives

           Let the children look for numbers on the grocery store fliers.  Have them look for the number of the year old they are and circle it with a marker. How many numbers can they name by sight?

Mathematics/Number & Operations; demonstrates increasing interest and awareness of numbers and counting as a means for solving problems and determining quantity.

Outdoor Play

            Dampen the sand and make a feast with lots of sand cakes.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; participates in a variety of dramatic play activities that become moore extended and complex.

Transitions

            Have the children try to recall the foods that the family bought in the grocery store.

Literacy/Book KNowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and to predict what will happen next in a story.

This is a good story to read before going on a grocery store field trip.  Go and buy the items you need to purchase a cooking project.

Resources