Little House & The Farm, Part 2: The General Store

As I was gathering materials and ideas for our current play theme, Little House & The Farm, I came across a lot of wonderful resources and ideas on other blogs, Little House websites and homeschool websites. One of my favorites is this free printable Little House in the Big Woods & Pioneer Unit available at Every Star is Different (an especially useful site for those interested in Montessori style education). I tend to add my own flavor to printable materials, and I decided to adapt many of these into our Ever-changing Book. S especially took to "The General Store" activity. I laminated the cards provided in the free printable pack and added in a background page with some images I found of Colonial style General Stores. I added a small pouch of play coins (you could use real coins) and he could "go shopping" by choosing what he wanted to buy and matching the coins. Older children could add up the sum while younger ones would do best to match the coins to the picture. Our play money is true to size, which makes that easier. It also sparked a conversation of similarities and differences between coins and what each coin is called. S had a hard time telling apart the nickles and quarters at first until I showed him that nickels have a smooth edge and quarters have a bumpy one. In addition to matching and observing the spacial awareness to do so, he also worked on one-to-one correspondence and counting as he figured out how many of each coin he needed. When he filled the card, he got to keep it and play again!

Well, this was enough fun that he requested to play the game as is a few times this week. But I wanted to expand the activity into a "real" General Store dramatic play scene so both boys could go shopping Pioneer style! I tried to keep mostly true to the time period with some modern flair thrown in (I'm pretty sure Paw Patrol was not a common calico print of the time). I set up shop on our long dining room table while the boys napped [well, one of them at least] and then it was shopping day!

Our General Store stocked pots and pans, kitchen knives, handsaws and hammers, nails, boots, dried beans, ribbon (that needed to be measured and cut--gotta throw in some math and fine motor practice, right?), fabric, buttons, sugar and even candy! Each of the boys was given a pouch of large play coins (to be a bit more accommodating to Y who still explores with his mouth) and each item would cost one coin (also to be a bit more accommodating to mixed ages). Older shoppers could be encouraged to do a bit of adding while they shop with a more creative pricing system. Even as we set it up, they might have to pay a coin for one pot or 1 foot of yarn (and more if they wanted 2 feet), one scoop of beans or candy and so on.

I stocked shopping bags and drawstring pouches for our shoppers and a sales registry I bought a while ago at Dollar Tree for dramatic play. As they shopped, I wrote down their purchases and added their total. S helped count the appropriate number of coins. He would have spent his whole pouch of money on candy if there weren't a two scoop limit, although he was nearly as excited for the 4 nails to add to his wood shop!

S thoroughly examined the Paw Patrol fabric he wanted to buy before making his final decision. We'd be using this again in projects later in the week...

Y was quite thrilled to be bringing home a new hammer and handsaw! I wonder what he'll build?

It was a great day at the General Store!

This was such a fun way to spend our afternoon engaged in dramatic play. But play is not the only thing that happened--we also learned a bit about history and practiced math skills like measuring, counting, adding and early reading and writing in our print-rich environment. Our play scene was also a great opportunity to practice the social skills of shopping like waiting your turn, navigating a crowded store, and communicating politely with sales associates and other shoppers. The boys demolished the candy, S saved his pouch of sugar to add to our Shabbos dessert recipe later this week and the fabric and ribbons they bought were to make a second surprise appearance in the morning. Join us tomorrow to see what became of them and until then...

Happy Playing!