Two Dollar Shop

Years K - 3

Summary

Children collect objects to sell in the Two Dollar Shop. Objects are marked in whole dollar prices up to $5 or $10. When the shop is set up, groups take turns to go shopping. One person is the Shopkeeper, the others are the customers. Red plugs are worth $1 and yellow/blue plugs are worth $2. Suitable for threading.

Materials

  • One Poly Plug per pair
  • One calculator for the shopkeeper
  • Collected objects for the shop
  • Stickers for prices
  • Assorted decorative materials

Note: This investigation has been included in Maths At Home. In this form it has fresh context and purpose and, in some cases, additional resources. Maths At Home activity plans encourage independent investigation through guided 'homework', or, for the teacher, can be an outline of a class investigation.
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Procedure

Children collect objects from around the room (or from home) and mark them with prices in whole dollars up to $10. Some teachers use one space in the room as the shop and groups visit in turn. Other teachers invite each pair to set up a shop on their own table as in the photograph.
  • A group of 3 visiting the class shop works well. One person is the Shopkeeper and the other two are the customers. Each time the group visits, they change roles.
  • If using table shops, half the class goes shopping in the market stalls on the other side of the room today and the other half does their shopping the next day.
Notes:
  1. Some teachers like to make a special day each week for the market, eg: Tuesday is always market day, and build an integrated program around the event. For example you can find many stories around the theme of markets, shops and shopping; you can include making pancakes, popcorn and other simple recipes as if they were for food stalls at the market; markets are full of signs and notices that call on creative skills to prepare and so on.
  2. Some teachers have to make it clear that shopping is only 'pretends' and the objects have to eventually be returned to the donor.
  

Content

  • 1:1 correspondence
  • addition facts beyond 10
  • addition facts to 10
  • complementary addition
  • conservation of number
  • counting
  • making change
  • mathematical conversation
  • numeral recognition
  • odd & even numbers
  • operations - money
  • operations - whole number
  • recording - calculator
  • recording - written
  • subtraction
  • visual and kinaesthetic representation of number
  • writing numerals
Poly Plug is the money used in the shop. Red plugs are $1 coins and yellow/blue plugs are $2 coins, so a red/yellow/blue set has a total value of $75.
  • Shopping is done in pairs so there is need for mathematical conversation.
  • Each pair goes shopping with $20 ($30 or...) in their shopping bag. This amount can be made up from the coins in any way they like.
  • Unused plugs remain in the boards on the shoppers' table.
  • Shopkeepers have one complete Poly Plug set from which they make change if necessary.
  • Shopkeepers are encouraged to work out the total price in their head, however they will also like to use a calculator like a cash register.
From here, the idea is that the children simply enjoy doing the shopping. When finished they record in their journal the items they bought, what they paid for them, the change they were given and any other details deemed important.

Extensions

  1. Include challenges such as all payments and change must be made using the least number of coins, eg: $10 would have to be made with 5 yellow/blue plugs.
  2. Teach Shopkeepers to make change by counting on from the total cost to the amount offered (a lost art in most shops).
  3. When using minimum coins sort the objects into those that must be purchased using only $2 coins. Relate to even and odd numbers.
  4. What happens if the yellow/blue plugs are worth $1 and the red plugs are worth 50¢?
  5. This activity leads into Poly Plug Values.


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