DIY grocery store play kit for imaginary fun

What you need:

Number of players:

Activity:

Opening up a grocery store is the ambition of many a child and you can create a DIY kit that will really bring this role-play scenario to life. Order the stock, stock the shelves, add the price labels and tally the customer orders at the register – it’s all such a lot of fun.

You can download and print a checklist stock book as well as the open/close store signs and obligatory ‘thank you, please call again’ sign for above the shop door. Add these signs to your child’s bedroom door (my girls love setting the sign to ‘closed’ before bedtime!).

The last thing to do is to stock the shelves with items from your pantry. We chose any non-perishables that we had more than one item of on hand. More than one of anything gives the store a very authentic feel!

What you need

A box or basket to hold the play kit (I dumped out the basket that held our face washers in the linen cupboard)

• Grocery items (anything you have more than one of)
• Cash register (if you don’t have a toy one, just use a calculator)
• Open and closed signs (download the printable below) and cardboard and string
• Labels for pricing
• Marker for writing out the prices
• Empty plastic bags for ‘customers’ to take home their purchases
• We also added a ‘lolly’ station using pom poms, clear little bags and tongs (see below how to put this together)
• Grocery stock book (download the printable below)
• Apron
• Pencil
• Skewer for pressing holes in your signs
• Scissors
• Glue

You could also add things like baskets for grocery shopping, play vegetables and fruit, a shopping trolley, etc. It’s fun coming up with different ideas to add to the play kit.

What you do

1. Download and print the ‘Grocery store additional items’ printable. Cut out the signs and glue them onto your cardboard (we just used a recycled cereal box). Push two small holes in the top of the card with a skewer and thread through the string.

2. Set up your lolly station with lots of different coloured pom poms and the small bags. The kids will enjoy picking up the ‘lollies’ and putting them into bags for their customers. This is a great activity for fine-motor development.

3. Set out your stock for your customers to purchase. Kids will love pretending to order new stock in their printable grocery stock book.

4. Add prices to the labels and stick onto the items for sale.

5. Attach your store sign to the front of the play kit and present it to your child for an afternoon of role-play fun.