I Confess... I Teach Shopping...

... because there is just so much to learn from shopping!

Seriously, there is adding, subtracting, sorting, counting, and tons of problem solving! That's why I think we should all set up a different store each month in our classrooms. Here is my latest store,  a Donut Shop!

Think Outside The Donut Box:

Wouldn't you love to have this in your classroom?

These treats look so real.

I like to browse through the Oriental Trading Company catalog and pick out items that relate to one theme. The people at Oriental Trading Company let me shop for new items for a classroom store. 

This is what I got:

Click to see where I got these. 

I set up a donut shop in my friend's classroom and I introduced the center to her kindergarten students just like I did in my own classroom. I called up 3 students at a time and asked one to be the clerk an two to be the customers. 

I set this up in front of a small bookcase in the home center, but you can also use a single desk.

This is what the back of the bookcase looked like. 

The clerk put on a donut shop cap and, without any prompting from me, asked, "May I help you?" 

  

Since the children decided that everything in the shop 

was 1 cent, that made adding things up easy. 

I folded the box these treats came in to create a display box. 

As the first child asked for treats, the clerk asked it if was "to go" so the treats could be packed in one of the cute carry out boxes or bags. 

If the donuts were to be eaten here, they were served up on a donut plate. Before we began, we discussed how we were going to pretend to eat the donuts, but that we wouldn't really taste them. 

After each child "bought" some treats using plastic coins, they got to have a turn being the clerk. The 1st thing the clerk needs to do is stock the shelves and they do that with the items they purchased. 

These kids were counting, adding, problem solving,
and using their oral language skills to communicate. 

I was also able to get a cute game from Oriental Tracing Company. It was a lot like Twister, but with a donut theme. 

You could add letters, numbers, or even sight words to these donuts.

We are going to add laminated numbers to the donuts on the spinner so the children can toss a beanbag to the matching number and show it on their Rekenreks. 

Rekenreks are cute counting racks that help children to instantly recognize (or subitize) because they have 5 red beads and 5 white beads so it's easy to recognize amounts such as 6 because you instantly see all 5 red beads and 1 white. 

You can make one row or two.
The pumpkin represents 19.
  10 on the top row and 9 on the bottom.
Click on the Rekenreks to see how to make these with your students. 

Oriental Trading Company also sent me some cute Fun Foam flowers and pony beads so we can make cute Rekenreks and use them as we spin the spinner. You can also use the numbers from 0-5 to create sums with your Rekenreks. 

Did you know that Oriental Trading Company has a TEACHER SUPPLY PAGE? 

Well, they do and it's filled with so many wonderful classroom supplies at terrific prices. CLICK HERE to see for yourself.

 

Click the image to see the entire TEACHER SUPPLY PAGE. 

Do YOU have any shopping ideas?

Browse the Oriental Trading catalog and think up new stores you might like to set up in your classroom. You can even set up a pet shop with little stuffed animals, a restaurant, or even a Halloween shop! Leave YOUR ideas in the comments.