Community Helpers Grocer Theme for Preschool

Community Helpers Grocer Preschool Theme -- Grocer, although a term used less and less, can help describe the people who work in our grocery stores, markets and supermarkets. You can also include many words and terms to the children such as cash registers, cashiers, store managers, shelves, freezers, deli, etc. This theme page is filled with preschool activities and ideas for all areas of your classroom.

A week or two before this theme, send a note home to families asking them to save cereal boxes, labels from cans, plastic milk and juice bottles and other food packaging that you can use in the classroom.

Let the Theme planning begin!

You can either scroll down through this page to see all of the preschool activities for your theme or click the link below to go to specific preschool activity types you are looking for.

You'll find more themes to help you with your planning on my preschool themes page.

GROCER Art Activities Block Area Circle Time Activities Cooking Recipes Dramatic Play Ideas Easel Ideas Gross Motor Games Library and Literacy Math And Manipulatives Activities Music and Movement Sand and Water Table Science Activities Writing Activities Miscellaneous Ideas

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LOOKING FOR OTHER COMMUNITY HELPERS THEME PAGES? Click the Link below!

Click Here for COMMUNITY HELPERS MAIN PAGE

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Art Activities

Community Helpers Grocer Theme Art

Food Collage

Use macaroni and beans to make art collages. Use heavy tag board or cardboard. When given enough time and freedom to do their own thing, you'll end up with some great collages! We've seen planets, animals, shapes and names!

Favorite Food Collage

Materials Needed: magazines, glue or glue sticks, paper, scissors

The children cut out pictures of their favorite foods and glue them to paper.

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Block Area

Community Helpers Grocer Theme Block Center Ideas

Block Store

Place different types of small play food in the block area. Encourage the children to build "bins" and "shelves" out of blocks. They can create "aisles" for their block center grocery store.

Variation: Provide DUPLO/LEGO to build with!

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Circle Time Activities

Community Helpers Grocer Theme Circle Time Ideas

Circle Time is such a great time for children to learn the social skills of being together as a large group AND to learn more about your theme!


Where Does It Come From?

Materials Needed: Chart paper to hang at your Circle Area, a marker, pictures of a variety of foods.

Ask the children where they think the foods come from that they find in a grocery store and list.

For example, bananas, oranges, steak, lettuce, etc.

Discuss farms, farmers, etc.

Then discuss how it might be transported from the farm or other country to the store in your city or town.

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Cooking Recipes

Snack Recipe Ideas to Cook Up for Your Community Helpers Grocer Theme!

Cooking with children helps develop their math skills and helps them to learn how to follow directions. It also allows for some great conversation! Ask many questions while cooking with your children to encourage conversation! Be sure to ask specific themed questions while making these fun snacks!

None here!  Contact me with ideas to add to this page for the Grocer Theme!

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Dramatic Play Ideas

Community Helpers Grocer Theme Ideas to Transform Your Dramatic Play Area

Grocery Story

Materials: Large refrigerator box.

Cut an opening (large window) in the front and a door in one side.

Place a table inside the box under the window opening.

Place the back of the "store" against some empty shelves in the classroom or cut off the tops from smaller boxes, turn them upside down and stack them to form shelves.

Put a toy cash register and play money on the table.

Add canned goods, empty cereal boxes, etc. on the shelves.

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Easel Ideas

Community Helpers Grocer Theme Ideas for your Easel--More Than Just Painting (Although that is always THE favorite in our classroom!)

Try painting with different foods such as celery stalks or the fern part of carrots!!

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Gross Motor Games

Community Helpers Grocer Theme Large Group Games that help build their muscles while they have fun together

Going to the Grocery Store Obstacle Course

Set up an obstacle course in a large area.

Use painter's tape (easier to get off floors and carpets) to make arrows for directions.

Use milk jugs filled with sand for a house construction, boxes or chairs for tunnels, carpet squares for a stream or road, shoe boxes for a road construction area, hula hoops for puddles.

Use some of your other ideas!

Tell a story about how to get to the store (oh no...a puddle! Let's go around it, or hop through it!)

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Library and Literacy

Community Helpers Grocer Theme Ideas for Your Library and Literacy Activities for your Preschool Classroom

Book Suggestions for the Library

(I LOVE Amazon, and some of the links below will take you to the Amazon website.  If you do choose to purchase yours through Amazon, they do send me a few cents--which supports my coffee habit! )

10 Red Apples by Pat Hutchins

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

At the Supermarket by David Hautzig

Market Day by Eve Bunting

On Market Street by Arnold Lobel

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Math And Manipulatives Activities

Community Helpers Grocer Theme Activities to help your Preschoolers develop those small muscles in their hands!

Pricing

Materials: In advance, cut out pictures of many different foods. Glue them to index cards and list a "price" on the card. (numbers 1-10 or 1-20, depending on which numbers your children can identify).

The children can sort the foods by many attributes: Which foods cost the same? Which foods are the same?

VARIATION: Choose two cards with different prices. Which one cost more? Less?

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Music and Movement

Community Helpers Grocer Theme Music and Movement Activities and Ideas to get your Preschoolers Movin' and Groovin'!

To Market, To Market

Form a large circle and recite the rhyme while performing the actions.

To market, to market (join hands and walk in circle)

To buy a fat pig (stop and walk to center of circle then back)

Home again, home again (walk in opposite direction)

Jiggety-jig (Stop, clap hands, 1-2-3-4)

To market, to market, (repeat above actions)

To buy a plum bun.

Home again, Home again,

Market is done.

VARIATION: Do this using a parachute!

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Sand and Water Table

Community Helper Grocer Theme Activities for the Senses!

What's That Smell?

Place different foods into different containers (be sure that children can not see through the containers or place the foods in ziploc plastic bags covered by dark construction paper).

Some examples might be cereal, soda, lemon juice, vanilla, vinegar, banana, etc.

Let the children smell and try to identify the foods.

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Science Activities

Community Helpers Grocer Theme Science Activities--for your Preschool Scientists in Training!

Match the Seed to the Food

Materials needed: variety of seeds, pictures (or pretend or real food that match the seeds),

Glue one of each type of seed on an index card (peas, oranges, apples, watermelons, etc.).

Glue pictures of each type of food on another card or provide a basket with those foods in them.

The children match the seeds and the food.

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Writing Activities

Writing Activity Ideas for Your Community Helpers Grocer Theme!

Label Names

Provide labels from food cans and boxes, scissors, paper and glue sticks.

The children cut out the letters in their name from the labels and then glue them onto paper to spell out their names.

Provide name cards with the children's names on them.

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Miscellaneous Ideas

Miscellaneous Activities for Your Community Helpers Grocer Theme!

Field Trips

Some ideas for field trips are:

Farmers' Market

Grocery Store

Farm

Dairy

Local Food Manufacturing Company

Classroom Visitors

Invite someone who is in the food production business (send requests home to parents).

Invite a produce manager.

Invite the local librarian to come and see you for a story time themed about Groceries!

Invite a local farmer! See if he/she can bring a farm truck with them!

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Go to COMMUNITY HELPERS MAIN PAGE from this Community Helpers Grocer Page

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Go to MAIN THEMES page from this Community Helpers Grocer Page

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Go to Preschool Plan-It's Home Page