Shopping and money

Objective & content

This sheet on shopping and money starts from a conversation at a shopping centre: Kayla has forty pounds of birthday money, finds some headphones in the sale and pays with cash, while her friend Ryan is saving his pocket money for a new bike. The conversation carries the target words, from price tag, bargain and half price to change, receipt and refund. Pupils answer six multiple-choice questions on it, name six pictures from a box of eight words, match eight words with their meanings and complete eight sentences from a box of ten words. The sheet ends on Kayla's thank-you message to her grandparents: pupils circle the right word in eight brackets.

Pedagogical guide

Pupils meet every word in the conversation before they practise it, then move from recognising the words to using them. Every task tests words only: no answer depends on a tense. Prices are in pounds, and the refund is explained in two plain sentences, so pupils understand the idea before they meet the word in a task. The final task is the hardest: the message retells Kayla's day, so each bracket offers three words of the topic and pupils must use the context to choose (expensive, cheap or half price; change, sale or refund).

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Ask "What do you spend your pocket money on?" and write the answers and the money words on the board.
2. (10 min) Two pupils read the conversation aloud; the class answers the six questions.
3. (10 min) Pupils name the six pictures and match the eight words with their meanings.
4. (10 min) Pupils complete the eight sentences with the words in the box.
5. (10 min) Pupils read Kayla's message and circle the right word in each bracket.
6. (5 min) Check with the answer key on page 4.

Adaptations

[S] The teacher shows objects with a price; pupils say "cheap" or "expensive".

[A] Pupils act out a conversation in a shop, one as the customer and one as the shop assistant. To take it further, the class runs a survey of pocket money and what pupils spend it on.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy of the three pupil pages per pupil, in colour or in black and white. Page 4 is the answer key: keep it. Pupils should know the present simple, the present continuous, going to, the past simple of common verbs, short comparatives such as cheaper and numbers up to 100.