Museum "Grocery Store" Curriculum

The Kids 'N' Stuff Grocery Store exhibit was built and funded by Felpausch. It comes fully stocked with a variety of “fresh”, “packaged” and “frozen” products. There is even a checkout lane complete with a movable conveyor, working scanner and register.

Kids can fill up their carts, restock the shelves and run the checkout. The exhibit also offers games and puzzles relating to the food pyramid for younger children. Older children will enjoy reading the creative labeling of food from many cultures showing them where our food actually comes from.

Children visiting the Museum will stimulate their imaginations and appetites as they explore these key subjects:

• Math and metrics
• Product categories
• Meal planning
• Nutritional choices
• Grocery store economics
• Careers and role playing
• Ethnic foods and cultural diversity

For more information and educational ideas, please call Kathy Fischer, Kids 'N' Stuff Executive Director,
at (517) 629-8023.

Curriculum Components

Component I: Categories and Classifications (Primary Level)

Component II: The Food Pyramid (Primary Level)

Component III: Nutritional Choices (Intermediate Level)

Component IV: Meal Planning (Primary/Intermediate Levels)

Component V: Grocery Store Economics (Intermediate Level)

Component VI: Careers and Role-Play (Primary/Intermediate Levels)

Component VII: Curriculum Extension Simulated Ethnic Festival Planning (Primary/Intermediate Levels)

Component I: Categories and Classifications (Primary Level)

Objective:

Students will identify general grocery store items and categorize specific groceries according to type and use, e.g. food groups, paper products, laundry products, etc.

Pre-visit Activities:

• Generate lists of products/items found in the home.
• Classify listed products/items that could be found in a grocery store.
• Categorize grocery store items according to type and use.

Museum Focus:

• Verify category choices (#3 above) by locating product lines and specific items and match with generated lists.
• Place sample category items on checkout conveyor and run through checkout process, bagging categories together for discussion.
• Generate questions about various classifications of products and determine appropriate answers (included in docent lesson plan).

Post-visit Activities:

• Compare generated categories with actual grocery store shopping experiences.
• Practice categorizing grocery items from random lists with words and/or pictures.
• Brainstorm "new" products and items and place in appropriate categories.
  

Component II: The Food Pyramid (Primary Level)

Objective:

Students will understand the concept of Food Groups and be able to classify specific foods into the appropriate groups.

Pre-visit Activities:

• Teach/review the concept of Food Groups.
• Practice illustrating the Food Pyramid, using photographs/drawings of examples of each food group.
• Analyze foods eaten at school according to food group components. Use school breakfast and lunch, classroom "snacks", specific "celebration foods."

Museum Activities:

• Identify and locate specific food groups within the museum grocery store.
• Select an example(s) from each food group, take them through the checkout process and discuss the choices for accuracy, using the Food Pyramid display.
• Follow Activity #2, with planned errors, and have students determine those errors and make corrections.
  

Post-visit Activities:

• Create individual or small group Food Pyramids, using pictures and drawings to illustrate examples.
• Analyze grocery store flyers according to food groups advertised.
• Create food group charts from individual flyers and compare types of food advertised among different stores.
• Visit a grocery store and analyze the organization in terms of food groups.

Component III: Nutritional Choices (Intermediate Level)

Objective: Students will understand and appreciate the importance of nutrition in making food choices.

Pre-visit Activities:

• Use Nutrition unit(s) from your existing curriculum.
• Review nutrition unit previously studied.
• Incorporate the following understandings:
  • Natural foods
  • Food additives
  • Nutritional food vs. "junk foods"
  • Nutrients, Calories, Fat ingredients and percentages
  • Recommended daily allowances
    

Museum Activities:

• Evaluate nutritional impact of a variety of selected grocery items.
• Compare the nutritional components among a variety of brands of similar items.
• Play a nutrition game, determining which of two randomly selected items has greater nutritional impact. Attempt to reach consensus, and record items of disagreement for future research back in the classroom.
  

Post-visit Activities:

• Evaluate nutritional impact of meals from a variety of restaurant menus.
• Research items on recorded list from Museum visit.
• Plan and shop for nutritional foods for special class or school events.

Component IV: Meal Planning (Primary/Intermediate Levels)

Objective:

Students will develop daily/weekly family menus that emphasize proper nutrition and variety.

Pre-visit Activities:

Practice categorizing foods into "meal" and "snack" groups.
Identify foods according to meal type – breakfast, lunch, dinner – and support choices.
Prepare a day’s/week’s menu that includes nutritional examples from the food pyramid.

Museum Activities:

• Review prepared menus and use them to shop for selected items, adjusting menus according to availability in the museum grocery
• Discuss, model and practice the checkout process, including appropriate bagging techniques to group items appropriately and ensure safe delivery.
• Take selected items through the checkout process and bag them according to meals.
• Conduct a group discussion of menus in terms of nutrition and variety.
• Continue discussion connecting menu items to the food pyramid.
  

Post-visit Activities:

• Help prepare family menus and assist in shopping.
• Record actual meal menus through writing, drawing, photography, food containers, and report to the class.
• Prepare a menu and shop for a "class meal". If facilities are available, prepare the meal as a closure activity.
  

Component V: Grocery Store Economics (Intermediate Level)

Objective:

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the economics of grocery shopping through budgeting and comparative shopping.

Pre-visit Activities:

• Create a budget for a day’s or week’s grocery shopping.
• Practice grocery list preparation and "shopping" from grocery store advertisement flyers, using the budget(s) you've created.
• Use a variety of grocery store flyers to determine the "best deals" on similar items.
• Generate a grocery items list for grocery shopping at the museum and plan an appropriate budget.
  

Museum Activities:

• Shop for items on prepared list.
• Maintain pre-determined budget while shopping and adjust list as needed.
• Take selected items through the checkout process.
• Evaluate success of shopping experience in terms of selected items and budget.
  

Post-visit Activities:

Use skills practiced in pre-visit and museum activities to help with family grocery shopping.

Component VI: Careers and Role-Play (Primary/Intermediate Levels)

Objective:

Students will understand the various roles and duties within a grocery store setting.

Pre-visit Activities:

• Generate a list of grocery store jobs.
• Invite grocery store manager as guest speaker to discuss roles and responsibilities.
• Review jobs and responsibilities.
  

Museum Activities:

• Role-play grocery store jobs and duties.
• Evaluate roles played through group discussion.
  

Post-visit Activities:

• Partner with local grocery stores for students to "shadow" specific grocery store workers.
• Journal information learned and report back to class. Include visual aids if possible – photographs, videos.
• Compare similar jobs shadowed from different stores.
• Write letters of appreciation to stores that provided shadowing opportunities.
  

Component VII: Curriculum Extension Simulated Ethnic Festival Planning (Primary/Intermediate Levels)

Objective:

Students will recognize examples of foods characteristic of various ethnic population groupings and organize those foods into meals representing those ethnic groupings, while creating an "Ethnic Food Festival."

Pre-visit Activities:

• Discuss the concept of "festival" as a large social gathering and celebration with a specific theme focus, often including music, dance and food related to that theme.
• Brainstorm list of possible festival theme topics.
• Discuss the concept of "ethnic grouping" in terms of cultural, racial, national origin similarities among people.
• Brainstorm list of specific ethnic groupings, including reasons for determining specific groups.
• Discuss the concept of "ethnic festival" as a social gathering within/among a variety of divergent cultural groups and a sharing of their diversity in terms of music, dance and, in this case specifically, examples of foods.
• Brainstorm ideas for creating a simulated ethnic festival within your community including
• Process for obtaining permission to hold a festival
• Sample letter writing to appropriate local officials
• Determining media involvement for festival advertising
• Determining committees needed to organize and run a festival
• Budget requirements, including sources for funding
• Generate list of contributors for materials, equipment, food, etc.
• Determine specific ethnic groups to be focus of the festival, based on the demographics of your community.
• Determine types of food unique to each selected ethnic group.
  

Museum Activities:

• Conduct a search through the grocery store for examples of specific ethnic foods, determining the specific ethnic group(s) associated with each food item identified.
• Divide selected items into specific ethnic meal groupings, and take selected foods through the checkout process, bagging items by individual ethnic groups.
• Evaluate choices by examining and explaining contents of each "ethnic bag".
  

Post-visit Activities:

• Plan an actual ethnic food festival for your class/grade/school.
• Create advertising with posters, school announcements, school newsletters, etc.
• Invite local/school officials, parents, community members, contributors, etc. to attend the festival.
• Celebrate the diversity of your community and enjoy what you have created!

Additional Curriculum Information

Museum Curriculum Home
Kids 'N' Stuff Grocery Store Curriculum
Kids 'N' Stuff Drama Area Curriculum

If you have questions, suggestions or comments about Kids 'N' Stuff Children's Museum, don't hesitate
to call us at (517) 629-8023. Or you can use our online comments form. Thank you!