Playing store with my adult Norwegian class

One of my adult Norwegian classes is studying food right now, and just learned about the Norwegian monetary system. There is a dialogue in our textbook that illustrates how to shop for food, but that is the only example given. Many of my students either want to go to Norway in the future or are already planning their trip, so I use this opportunity to do a practical, hands-on lesson. Over the years, it has become a favorite among all my classes. I take the play food that the barnehage (children's immersion class) uses and set all the pieces out on a table. I include some silverware and condiments. Then I set the play cash register on the end and take out the play money. I make sure to hide the credit card that comes with the cash register! The students bring their books along and gather around the food. I sit at the end with the cash register and start the activity, greeting the first "customer". The "customer" chooses what he or she wants to buy, then gives it to me to ring up. I make up reasonable prices, but have a current advertisement from a Norwegian grocery store chain as a reference for those who want to use that. I tell the "customer" the price, then he or she pays me and we end the conversation. The "customer" then becomes the "cashier" and another student becomes the new "customer". I then am the last "customer" so that every student has an opportunity to fill both roles. If there were an interactive whiteboard in our classroom, the students could use the online advertisement site to pull up the actual prices of their merchandise so the "cashier" could ring it up accurately. This would also incorporate the techniques of skimming, reading forms, and spelling.

Sensory box and toys for June's garden/farm barnehage theme

Our theme for the barnehage, our children's Norwegian-language playtime, is gardening & farming.  I put together this activity table to encourage the children to learn new Norwegian words and use them in their play.  It includes a Playmobil farm set (seen in and around the yellow fence), several My Little Pony toys and accessories (including the barn), a sensory box, and picture cue cards.

The box has coffee beans in it, and the children can "plant" the fruit, flowers, and vegetables from the plastic toy sets.  They can also put row markers made from cut drinking straws in the coffee beans.  Then they can "water" the plants with the watering cans.  The big flower is a four-piece puzzle, and the cards to the left of it (below the straw signs) are word cards for the parts of a flower.  On the right are two sorting sheets, one for flowers and one for vegetables, and a set of picture/word matching cards with the words written in both Norwegian and English.  The sorting sheets can be used with the plant stakes and with the matching cards.

My ideas for this play table came from the Playmobil 5893 Pony Farm with Carrying Case, the My Little Pony Applejack's Sweet Apple Barn Playset and other accessories, homeschoolcreations.com, and Modern Parents, Messy Kids.