Henry Penate prefers buying to selling. The second grader purchased some items and served as a clerk for the Webutuck Elementary’s school store that opened for business on Jan. 23.

“I enjoyed buying because you can get stuff,” he said.

Karen Thompson and Jordan Stroly are speech-language pathologists at WES and organized it to have students practice their social skills. This year, students also were chosen to work on grammar and letter sounds.

Penate bought a block eraser and rainbow pencil from the school store, a cart of school supplies expected to be open through the end of January.

“It changes colors while you’re writing,” Penate said of the rainbow pencil.

The school store began with grant money from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. Students are buying items purchased with the grant money from a year ago and the school bought items to fill in the cart.

The student store has items such as pencils, erasers, pencil cases, bookmarks, notepads, sticky note pads and stickers. Prices are 25 cents, 50 cents, $1 and $2. Each student was given $3 in fake money – two $1 bills and four quarters – to purchase items.

Students welcome their peers to the school store and ask how they may help them. If a student say asks for a pencil, they will ask the student what color pencil they would like. The student clerk says how much the item costs and collects the money. When sales are completed, the student clerk thanks their customer for coming to the school store.

“They’re practicing their sounds which is good because a lot of them can do their sounds within the therapy room but don’t think about it once they get out of the therapy room,” said Thompson.

“We’re exposing more students this year to being clerks and addressing all their speech and language goals. Plus they’re having some fun.”

For the students visiting the school store, they also have the opportunity to work on their social and math skills as they fill out a school store wish list with their wish-list adding up to $3.

“This is the first time I saw it,” said Amanda Coppola, elementary school principal. “It’s amazing and very sweet. I love the interactions between the students.

“I love this opportunity for our students and I’m very appreciative for Karen Thompson and Jordan Stroly to be doing this. They’re turning this into an educational activity, social activity and a life-learning experience that everyone gets to do.”