Special education students learn all about shopping
By Jan Giel
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP -- Hoping to simulate the experience of a productive trip to the grocery store for her students at Washington Township High School, special education teacher Deirdre Lee searched catalogs for supplies for her classroom. Finding none that would be appropriately sized and age appropriate, she and teacher Joan McVey spent time beyond the school day building their own store, the student-tabbed "E-1 Market." The group celebrated its recent completion with a Grand Opening ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebratory cake before launching into the learning lab.
WTHS sophomore Lizzie Pinto calculates the cost of her recent shopping trip to the E-1 Market. Lee and McVey crafted shelving for products, added produce bins and organized dairy, bakery, canned goods, frozen foods, household items, and health and beauty sections. They then stocked the shelves with hand-crafted, realistic-looking food items, including cupcakes made from modeling clay, loaves of bread made from panty hose, ground meat made from yarn, even dog toys like plastic steaks and lobsters that were placed in packaging to look like the real thing. Empty boxes of cereal, egg cartons and plastic fruits and vegetables secured at a thrift shop completed the store. Wegmans supermarket in Marlton donated shopping bags, brochures, posters and other materials to give the E-1 Market an authentic feel.
On a recent visit, the students selected an envelope that contained the names of various grocery items. They copied their items onto a grocery list and then scoured the shelves for those items, placed them in shopping bags and returned to their desks to calculate the cost of their total orders. They then counted out the money to pay for their food order.
"My students decided on the name and have really enjoyed opening the E-1 Market," Lee, one of the school's 2015-16 Teachers of the Year, said. "We have used the market to reinforce skills like reading and matching, and counting money, and we are now working on making change. Our goal is to take the students on a field trip to the grocery store in the spring for a real-life experience."
Jan Giel is Student Registration, Data and Information Manager at Washington Township Public Schools