This month, I have a Grocery Store set up in our Dramatic Play area. We are doing a Farm Theme this month, and a Grocery Store goes well with that theme because we can talk about how our food goes from farm to grocery store. Last month, I posted our Vet Office. Find more of my Dramatic Play centers here.
This is the front of our Grocery Store which shows our “Market” banner and our “Market Hours” sign.
This is the back of our Store and shows our cash register, shopping baskets (green), and our “Sale” sign.
On this shelf, I have food with price labels: mini juice and milk jugs and bread. We only have a few food items on our shelf, but there are more elsewhere in the dramatic play area.
On this shelf, we have price labels: apples, bananas, carrots. The baskets on the bottom have our reusable grocery bags and purses and wallets.
Our purses came from the Dollar Tree.
Our reusable grocery bags came from the Dollar Tree. I like these bags because they are smaller than “real” reusable grocery bags.
These shopping baskets also came from the Dollar Tree.
I added rolls of receipt paper. The children cut the paper with scissors and write items and prices on the receipts. I bought this paper in a pack of 3 rolls at Staples for just a little over $1.
Our cash register is stuffed with play money and receipts. The kids love this cash register. I think this must be a vintage toy because I haven’t seen them anywhere else, but there are plenty of companies that sell all kinds of cash registers. The play money was printed from online. I just googled “play money”. I had also added some real pennies, but they disappeared. 🙂
I cut coupons out of the newspaper inserts and laminated them. These make great environmental print.
I printed these name tags and put them inside the clear name tag necklaces (from Lakeshore) for store employees to wear.
Our “credit cards” are used gift cards and fake credit cards from junk mail.
These are checks the children can write on to pay for their groceries. You can print these play checks here.
We have shopping lists for children to write their list of items they will buy at the grocery store. With the checks and shopping list children are practicing writing skills while they think they are just playing! You can print the shopping lists here.
We have more grocery items for children to purchase in our refrigerator section.
This Open/Closed sign is a highly prized part of our Grocery Store. The children love to turn the sign and close their store when center time is over.
I know all of you have more ideas of things you add to your Grocery Store Dramatic Play centers! Please share your ideas in the comments below!
Where it came from
The market shelf with awning is the “Village Store” from Community Playthings.
I used several items from the Grocery Store Dramatic Play packet sold at Pre-K Pages:
- Market banner
- Market hours sign
- Sale sign
- Employee name tag cards
- Price/food signs
- Food signs (on refrigerator)
- Open/Closed sign
Disclosure: I was not paid or compensated in any way to promote any products listed on this page. I shared where I purchased each item only to be useful to others.
Don't worry - we never sell or share email addresses!
I love your new dramatic play stand from CP, it looks fabulous! That cash register is cool too, I haven’t seen a pretend one that looks like that before, very cute!
It is innovative theme.
Hi Karen
Thank you so much for wonderful ideas your dramatic play area is very creative .
Love it! I am teaching ESL to preschoolers. Role play is a great way to learn a second language.
Me too, in Papua New Guinea! I was just telling my preschool teacher about this theme, great ideas.
Love your grocery store idea,.
Each and every time I am so impressed with your ideas! The grocery store is such an awesome idea I love it. Your website is such a fun, knowledgeable source for pre K.
Thank you so much the children enjoy the fun centers.
Cindi
Your Grocery Store is AWESOME! I never thought to use name tags for the store employees, that’s a nice touch. I will use some of these ideas when I set up my grocery store! Thanks so much for sharing!
This looks really simple and fun/ will be adding this to our dramatic play area.
Dear karan
thank you for sharing wonderful ideas. your grocery shop is very creative.
I want to be 5 and in your classroom. It is so roomy and you do such a great job presenting
concepts to your class in a “playful” way.
Thanks, Kathy! That’s a wonderful compliment!
I did the same theme in my classroom in August. The kid’s had so much fun. They used the cash register and loved pretending to be a cashier. It was awesome too see how they played.
amazing ideas , thank you very much may God reward you this short life and hereafter.
my school is new , i just opened in september. My students dont speak in english i struggle a lot to explain for themm and i have different ages too. I have to teach them the language and the centers and the rules first. how do you suggest me.
Hi Karen.
Thanks a lot for sending ideas such as this , especially now, that we’re setting up a store kind of thing in our roleplay area for our unit of inquiry.
Please dont get tired of giving us ideas…
Grocery store idea is really wonderful. our school is in mysore india.. i got many ideas .Thanks for sharing
Great ideas! Thanks! Here are a few other ideas that some might try… I started the grocery store center by first having the kids brainstorm a list of things you’d find and things people need in a grocery store. The kids then helped put the store together… They helped me spell-out “Grocery Store” for the sign, then I let them color the bubble letters. They helped make the labels for the foods… Some kids were able to copy the words and draw the pictures. I modeled the words for them to copy on sticky notes, and then the sticky note idea caught-on and I had lots of kids “writing” on sticky notes. Another idea that worked well was having the kids sign-up to be the clerk, since they all wanted a turn to run the cash register. The grocery store was a hit!
I love it!! Thanks for sharing. I cannot wait to do this in my classroom.
Wow! Lots of great ideas! My kids would love to be in your room.
Great ideas! I especially like the idea that all of the items are very economical and easy to find. Thank you for sharing!
Target sold the cash register a few years ago. Thanks for sharing your creativity your site is the first one I check when I need inspiration.
Wonderful ideas,complete from a-z.Your creative process is a blessing !♥
WONDERFUL!!!!!! Thanks sooooooooooo much Karen for sharing! You are so creative and you really know how to bring the Dramatic Play area to life for the children we serve. Love it!
Hi I am a Head Start Preschool teacher, I can not wait to change my housekeeping to a grocery store love all of your ideas. Love your site.
Thank you 🙂
Dear Karen,
Thanks so much for such great ideas you share with us. Creative ways to get the children to learn and have an active class. Can’t wait to do this in class this term. Thanks so much.
Great job!!! You are amazing! I don’t know you but I can see your passion through your work! You make a difference! Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Thank you Mara!
I’m so excited to try out a few new dramatic play centers this year! This is going to be my first new setup!
Your classroom is amazing. You have done a great job and I love all of your ideas.