Let's go shopping!

The theme of shopping and food could have lasted for two months never mind two weeks as there was so much scope for integration! Here are some of the shopping centered activities that were undertaken by senior infants!

 1) Oral Language Development: 
We added a play shop area to the classroom for use during structured play and put price tags on all the items in it from 1c - 20c. We used real coins in the play center to pay for these items.
2) Maths: We learned all about money (1c up to 20c). 

Image does not belong to me. It is used for educational purposes. 

• We talked about the different characteristics of all the coins and played 'what's the mystery coin' games as a class and in pairs (they listened to the characteristics of the coins and told me which coin I/their partner was talking about). 
• We played feely bag games for identifying coins without seeing them (using size recognition mainly). 
• We also played bank and exchanged 1c coins for a single coin. (To make them aware of the value of each coin.)
• We sorted coins in terms of value.
•  They used coins to buy items from a shopkeeper in their groups. 
• We added coins to solve problems and see how much money we had in our wallet. (Put dots on coins to remind us of their value and aid counting of money).
• We kept a class piggy bank to make use of our new skills in adding money to see if we could buy a new item for the class shop at the end of the day (during the day I would ask them to put in a 2c or a 1c or a 5c coin until we had a number of coins in the piggy bank to add up at the end of the day).

3) Creative/functional writing: Writing a shopping list. 

We read the story of 'Wallace's Lists' (see: Wallace's Lists book preview) and talked about all the things we could make lists about. We then used words from our food word wall in conjunction with our sounding out skills to write our own shopping lists which we later used in the play shop.

(Apologies for poor quality picture)

4) Gaeilge: Ag siopadóireacht. 

We found food items for our siopa in our mála draíochta. 'An maith leat ___?' was asked of some of the children after each item was removed from the bag and placed in the shop. We learned the vocabulary of 'cheannaigh tú' by trying to guess what each pupil had bought and hidden from us. They also described their actions by saying 'cheannaigh mé___' or 'níor cheannaigh mé ' when a guess was given. We sang and acted out the song 'Cheannaigh mé ___, cheannaigh mé ____, cheannaigh mé ____agus d'ith mé é.' (To the tune of Polly Put the Kettle On). We later changed this song to 'Cheannaigh mé ___, cheannaigh mé ____, cheannaigh mé ____agus chaith mé é' when we were discussing an siopa éadaígh the following week.

5) History: Shops in the past.

We named and discussed grocery shops, pharmacies and sweet shops. We matched items sold in each to the correct shop. We then looked at pictures of what these shops looked like in the past, guessed which type of shop it was and spotted the differences and similarities between the old version and the new version. 

Images do not belong to me. They are used for educational purposes. 

6) Geography: Mapping the Monster's Shopping Trip.
We talked about places and things that you would see if you took a walk through a town. They listened to the Monster's Shopping Trip on the British Council Website: 

They noted the journey the monsters took and the shops they visited. We then discussed making a map of this journey. I showed them how they would start by drawing the monster's house and then the road. We discussed things that might be around the road, buildings, bridges, lakes, trees, signs etc and added the shops mentioned in the story. They then created their own version of the monster's journey.

7) Art: Class Bakery.
We talked about things that you might buy to eat in a bakery. We looked at pictures of these foods (cakes, buns, croissants, pies, doughnuts, biscuits, pastries) and talked about different cake designs. They then created their cakes and pasteries from clay. The only downfall of these creations was that when they dried they were quite brittle to handle and to paint. I covered them in PVA glue to harden them a little before we painted them to minimise damage. If I were making them again I would consider making them from homemade playdough in various colours and then bake them in the oven to harden them, meaning they wouldn't have to be painted. I would also have gone over them myself making sure all the little decorations they had stuck on were merged properly to the piece before it dried. Other than that, the kids loved this and they looked quite impressive on display in our class bakery (which the early finishers created a banner for)!

8) Music: Let's Go Shopping song

"Let’s Go Shopping,

Put on your coat and hat,

Carry your little bas-ket,

Over your arm like that,

And we’ll go walking, walking, walking, walking,

Walking down the street.

Shopping, shopping, shopping, shopping

Shopping for things to eat!

Good morning Mr. Grocer man and how do you do?

(Talking)A very good morning Madam

    What can I do for you?

Id like a dozen new laid eggs,

a pound of butter too,

A nice jar of honey (Doe, doe doe, doe, doe-me)

Here is my money (Doe, doe doe, doe, doe-me)

Good day, (me-doe) (pause)

good day

to you

And we’ll go walking, walking, walking, walking,

Walking down the street,

Shopping, shopping, shopping, shopping,

Shopping for things to eat!"