literacy - fun with junk mail

a little while back, i shared THIS LINK from childhood 101, and today was the perfect day for us to try it out.

we cut out pictures of annika's favorite foods from a number of grocery store circulars we had around the house. (we save them to line fitz the guinea pig's cage). 

lesson 1: hand-eye / small motor coordination exercise in cutting. 

then, i had her sort the foods into groups: fruit, meats, vegetables, drinks, etc. and we laid out the food groups on different shelves of our bookshelf units. 

lesson 2: sorting

then we glued the food pics to some cardboard cut from an applesauce box we were throwing out. we threw in a market basket for good measure. 

lesson 3: gluing and re-purposing

after that, of course, we had to set up the store. cash register, paper and pencils, play money, coffee mug, telephone, and eventually a potted plant, and a bunch of candles found their way to the store counter. "so it will be pretty and people will want to shop here," says the proprietress. :)

lesson 4: ... marketing? 

and then she got her first customer. Owen stepped in to buy a book, a bunch of grapes, and a boquet of flowers for his mama. 

Annika checks the price. 

Counts the money, and puts it in the till,

and fielded more customers. (i love that, along with their green groceries, they all bought books!)

lesson 5: money and counting.

she made sure to write everyone a receipt. 

lesson 6: writing 

end of the day, we had a great time, honed some important skills, and have everything we need to do this again!