Pretend Play: Grocery Shopping

We pretended the living room was a grocery store on Friday. We took all the toys off of the shelves you see in the photo above. Then we restocked them with Noah's plastic food toys and empty food containers that were about to go in the recycling bin. Okay, so it looks a bit like the shelves you might find in a third world grocery store. But it was the first time we attempted this game, so supplies were somewhat low. The kids didn't seem to mind...well, except for M. and L. both desperately wanting to purchase the one and only container of hummus!

I gave them all pretend paper money I have for teaching, which you see Noah handling in the photo above. M. is pushing the one "shopping cart" we had, while the rest used "shopping baskets".

I was the cashier, and every single purchase came to precisely 5 dollars, or 10 dollars. Noah kept coming to the cash with food, but no money. When I told him "These things cost money. You can't have them for free!" he would giggle, and then scan the room, where some money would be lying around, and return to the counter with his cash. L. kept coming to me and just giving me money. It was so cute - they were all getting bits and parts of the grocery shopping scenario.

After each purchase, I bagged their groceries for them. I even (though only momentarily) had them in line at the cash! They responded in good humour to my acting role as a cashier. I had to be firm with "rude customers" jumping the line, or taking others' purchases as their own at the counter. It was a real hoot!