Resource 3: Example questions to ask about a grocery item

Teacher resource for planning or adapting to use with pupils

  1. What is in this tin/packet/box?
  2. How do you know this?
  3. Which word or words are in the biggest letters?
  4. Why do you think this word or these words are in the biggest letters?
  5. How many words begin with capital letters?
  6. Which words are written more then once on the package?
  7. Which word is used the most?
  8. What is the weight of this product (grammes/kilogrammes)?
  9. What do all the words and pictures tell you about this product?

Questions to encourage critical thinking

  • Do you agree or disagree with what these words and pictures tell you?
  • If you had the money, would you like to buy this product? Why, or why not?

Note 1: Some products have words in more than one language. If this is the case for some of the items that you are using, you could ask pupils which languages have been used and why they think these have been used.

Note 2: These example questions are quite general. There are many other questions you could ask. For example, if there are pictures of people on the product, are they male or female, young or old? Why are these particular people on the packet/tin/box?

What pupils could learn from working with grocery packaging

Beginner readers could use the words on the grocery package to gain confidence and skill in recognising the shape of upper and lower case (capital and small) letters of the alphabet and in linking the letter shapes to sounds.

By copying letters and words from the packaging, beginner writers could gain confidence and skill in writing these letters and words accurately.

More advanced readers could read the ‘messages’ on the packaging and think about what these mean. They could begin to become critical readers.

By working in groups to design some grocery packaging, pupils could benefit from each other’s ideas, learn what is involved in package design, use their imaginations and practise some writing and reading.

Some pupils find it difficult to speak to the class because they don’t know what to talk about. Having a design for a package to explain to the class gives pupils a subject to speak about.

Each group’s design gives the rest of the class some additional material to read.

You could make reading cards with letters/words that some pupils found difficult to read. Put a helpful picture on each card. Use these for individual or small group reading practice with these pupils at a suitable time.

Resource 2: Examples of songs and rhymes

Resource 4: Preparing for a community walk – during which pupils will notice environmental print