Receipts
Beginning level
1. Practicing numbers: Students will work in the pairs and tell each other about the
price for each item on their receipt.
2. Practicing shopping vocabulary: Students will name all the groceries and other
items on the list. Teaching about shopping, you can ask students to name the
items that they are familiar with, and after that you can go over the list and
explain those items that they don’t understand.
3. Practicing past tense of verbs: Give students a list of past tense verbs (went,
bought, chose, paid etc), and they have to use the list telling their partner about
shopping of the items on the receipt.
4. Practicing past tense of verb: In the partnership or small groups student will ask
each other questions: “Why did you get this?”, and they have to explain why.
5. Practicing non-count and count nouns: Students will mark with different colors
the non-count and count nouns. After that each student will ask his partner about
the items on his receipt: How much was it? How much were those?
6. Practicing comparative degree of the adjectives. Students will tell their partner
about what is the most expensive item and what is the cheapest item on the
receipt. You can also ask questions for the whole class: “What was the most
expensive item on your receipt? How much was that? Who has the most
expensive item here?” You can do the same with the cheapest item. Students will
try to figure out who has the most expensive or the cheapest item in class, and by
doing that they will have to compare: “My apples are more expensive than yours”
etc.
7. Practicing scanning: Give students a copy of the same receipt. Ask students to
mark with the red pencil all items that cost less than 2 dollars; with green pencil
all items that cost more than 4 dollars; with blue pencil all items that are non-
count; with yellow all items that count. Ask them to underline all non-grocery
items.
8. You can initiate a conversation on the following topics:
- How much money do you have on you right now?
- Did you buy anything today? What? How much was it? Where? Why?
- How much money do you spend every week? What do you spend it on?
Intermediate level
1. Practicing compare and contrast: Every partnership receives three receipts with
different types of payment. Students will talk about the type of payment for these
products. “Is it cash, debit card, or credit card? What are advantages and
disadvantages or either way of payment? Which way of payment do you prefer?”
You can also write on the board three ways of payment and list some advantages
and disadvantages of each.
2. Practicing explaining: Can you guess the reason why a person got these items?
Was it a necessity? Was it for fun? Would you enjoy doing a shopping like that?
Ask students to make up a list of things that they enjoy or dislike shopping for.
After they will share it with their partners and explain the reasons of every choice.
3. Practicing telling a story: Ask students to evaluate the prices on the receipts that
have. Are these items expensive? Cheap? Reasonable? Ask students to tell their
partner about the thing that was the most expensive they have ever bought. “How
much was it? Why did you buy it? Where did you buy it? Do you still have it?”
4. Practicing cohesion in writing. Tell the story together. Students will work in
small groups of 4-5 students. The teacher gives a receipt to each student in the
group, and he/she is supposed to write the first sentence of “the shopping story”
according to this specific receipt. After that he/she passes the receipt and the
paper with the sentence to the left and the next student writes the next sentence.
In the end each group will have a number of stories corresponding to the number
of students in the group. This is a great practice for past tense of verbs.
Example: Lena went to the store. She needed some groceries. She wanted to spend
not too much money. She also wanted something very healthy etc.
Advanced level
1. Practicing expressing opinions. Ask students to answer the following questions:
What do you think about a person who was buying these items? Is he/she
wealthy? It is a student/worker/business man etc? Why do you think so? Ask
them to explain their opinion with the specific examples.
2. Practicing defending opinion/compare and contrast: Each student receives three
receipts with different types of payment. You have to divide them into three
teams and hold a debate. Each team has to defend that their way of payment is the
best and has more advantages over the other two. You can give them a handout
for expressing and defending opinion. It also can be a practice for using phrases
for compare and contrast essay if you teaching that. After this discussion you can
give them a few minutes to write about their opinion according the matter.
3. What are some other ways of buying? Why do many people today chose the
Internet to purchase things?
4. Short essay: Express your opinion about the following topic:
It is a good idea to keep your sales receipts. Do you agree or disagree?
It is a bit dangerous to have a credit card. Do you agree or disagree?
Internet shopping is more effective because you safe your money. Do you agree
or disagree?