Life Skills: Can’t Get to the Grocery Store for a Field Trip? No Problem!!
I am a big believer that the students in my classroom need to learn as many life skills as they can. They need to know how to tie their shoes, order at a restaurant, fold the laundry, cook, and clean.
Another skill that is vital is to work on understanding the concept of money. It seems like we always work with our students on coin and bill identification and naming the the values. They need to know how to count that money and even more important then that, they need to know if the money in their pocket or wallet is enough to buy the item that they want.
I love to hear when teachers work with students on generalizing those skills because that is where it really counts. Our students can know all day that a penny is worth one cent but, that means nothing if they haven’t practiced walking into a convenience store or grocery store and used it to pay for something.
It is hard to plan field trip after field trip for students to go out and practice. It is hard to have a mock “store” in your classroom (although that is a goal of mine, maybe next year). So, I thought about what I could use in my classroom that would be as close to the next best thing. And out came this baby!!
It provides multiple ways for students to emulate the grocery store and practice if they have enough money to buy an item. I made it so there are multiple levels in terms of the amount of money. There are coins only, dollars only, and a combination. There also are cards with visuals and cards with numeral amounts on them.
Here is a video product preview you can check out as well!!
If you want to look at more things that I feel are important life skills for our students you can check out my Pinterest board all about teaching life skills.
