Professional preschool furniture supplier＆manufacturer of quality, customizable furniture solutions for preschools and daycare centers. Our experienced team offers personalized design and exceptional customer service.
Choosing your dramatic play setup can be a little overwhelming, especially when you go to Pinterest and see these fantastic transformations that will be loved by your little learners. So, I created this giant dramatic play round-up with ideas that can be done on a budget, created with your students, and will be loads of fun for your young children.
When I chat with parents who are really struggling to make time for play, I hear a lot of comments like “I don’t have space for a dedicated play room” or “My kids just aren’t interested in playing with their toys without me. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but they just don’t seem […]
Early learning isn't just numbers and letters- its social and emotional. An effective dramatic play center helps children develop these skills.
Professional preschool furniture supplier＆manufacturer of quality, customizable furniture solutions for preschools and daycare centers. Our experienced team offers personalized design and exceptional customer service.
Nook, a new children’s play and learning space in Ballston, VA, reimagines the “family-friendly” destination as a curated, gallery-like experience, filled with thoughtfully designed furniture and multi-sensory installations. No rainbows needed. This is the 3rd...
Professional preschool furniture supplier＆manufacturer of quality, customizable furniture solutions for preschools and daycare centers. Our experienced team offers personalized design and exceptional customer service.
Professional preschool furniture supplier＆manufacturer of quality, customizable furniture solutions for preschools and daycare centers. Our experienced team offers personalized design and exceptional customer service.
Architectus collaborated with K2LD Architects and DesignInc to give space for creativity at Lucas Primary School in Ballarat, Australia. At Lucas Primary School in Ballarat, […]
Kindergarten classroom setup made easy! Find ideas for floor plans, centers, & classroom decor using a zones model of organization.
Learning centers are a part of independent learning in the classroom that allows students to be involved in learning activities independently. It requires few areas in the classroom that are accessible, interesting, and productive.
Think you’re clever using IKEA’s Trofast to round up all your kids’ toys, do ya? Well, okay, it is perfect for that, but that’s so Trofast 1.0. You’ve got to expaaaaand your miiiiind. Think outside the biiiiiin. Like these folks, who show that mere toy storage is just the tip of the Trofast iceberg. Check out these 20 ways to use the use the Trofast. Some are true hacks and reimaginings, others minor tweaks and adjustments. Not familiar with Trofast?
Professional preschool furniture supplier＆manufacturer of quality, customizable furniture solutions for preschools and daycare centers. Our experienced team offers personalized design and exceptional customer service.
The top 10 Ikea Classroom Hacks for teachers. Take all these Ikea items and turn them into lego tables, flip books, storage hacks and ...
When I moved to Pre-K, I completely changed how I ran my classroom. I went to a more center based, student led system, as opposed to a teacher led classroom. The biggest thing I had to adjust to, was I let the STUDENTS CHOOSE what center they go to, I let STUDENTS CHOOSE when they change centers. And do you know what? It was NOT mad chaos like I expected! Once we set expectations and taught them the appropriate social skills to communicate, it was so easy! This post does contain links, both affiliate and regular. Use them to find some great centers for your classroom, and help keep this blog running J Center Management Each of my centers has a card on it with two Velcro dots, and each of my children has a name tag, with a Velcro dot on the back. When my kids aren’t at centers, on the wall is a list of all our names and another Velcro dot. So, if we transition to centers after a whole group lesson, it is easy to call names and they go get their names and pick a center. If we are working in small groups, half of my kids can go grab their names. Another way I managed changing centers, was using clothes pins. If there were two dots open, that meant there is room for two kids. If both dots are full, the kiddos must wait until someone leaves. At first there were lots of tears and begging to get into a specific center (usually it was Magnatiles!) But all we had to do what teach them Social Skills. Being patient is a big skill we must learn. I also, don’t make friends leave a center because they have been there too long. Once we get past the bumps that come along with any center time, it is smooth sailing. Center Options So, a big question I get asked frequently is “What center options do you have in your classroom?” So, a quick reminder, I teach Pre-K, so my centers are free play centers. The first set of centers, that are a must have in our room, are building centers. Our number one pick, that is always full is our block center. They love seeing how tall of a wall they can build! They also love using these houses and cars from Lakeshore Learning. When they are by my desk I can hear them making sirens and pretending to be Officer Hofficer! (In which he is usually arresting someone for some silly crime, like not picking up their mess!) Another one of their favorite building centers is Legos. They LOVE to make things with Legos. I am adding little Legos this year to our centers. I really want them working those fine motor skills. I just love this table I made! I asked on my Facebook if anyone had an old two leveled side table, and a wonderful friend just happened to be getting rid of TWO! So, she gave them to me, I painted them, and added a Lego brick plate. This gives them a place to be stationed. A place for our Legos to live, so they aren’t spread all out across the classroom! Right now, our Magnetic Center is looking a little weak. Since it is the beginning of the year, they are exploring our center. We have magnetic letters, name with their picture, and those cute magnetic numbers and shapes that I found at the Target Dollar Spot! Eventually I put STEM activities in the magnetic center! They love playing with gears and funnels! Another one of the centers that is always full, is my train table! This table is the best thing since sliced bread let me tell you! Again, it gives the center a place to live. The train tracks are not running all around the room. However; it does give it a better ramp for them to go flying across the room (no matter how many times I tell the kiddos that trains stay on tracks and airplanes fly through the air!) I bought the train tracks and trains from Ikea, and they are super durable! I inherited this big sturdy storage system (again, from Ikea!) I use as our main center storage system. I bought these great containers from Sterilite, you can get a 6 pack for about $31 from Amazon, and they fit perfect in them. In these center tubs, they put their name on the center cards, pull the tubs out, and find a place in the room to work. In these tubs I have Pattern Blocks, Lite Brites, Bristle Blocks, Unifix Cubes, Mr. Potato Head, and Mega Blocks. Also in this station, I have all my puzzles. The puzzle center card is on the side of the storage system. You can read about what I use to store my puzzles HERE. I also got tired of searching for the “lost pieces”. As a result, I bought ANOTHER Sterilite container with a snap lid, added some vinyl, and the kids now know if they find an extra piece to put in the lost pieces container. Also, if they are missing a piece, they know exactly where to look. One of my favorite centers in my classroom, is our library. I store my books thematically. I put only a few books out at a time. They also have a tub of puppets to act out what they are “reading”. You can read HERE all about my classroom library. Another popular center is the Art Center. Yes. There is paint. We are going to try something new this year! But our art center typically has construction paper, crayons, stickers, markers, daubers, and pencils. We also added composition books to our Art Center this year. They will be labeled with a name, so each child has an art portfolio to take home at the end of the year. We are testing out a type of light table this year. I found an old overhead projector in our surplus pile. I took off the arm, and will be placing some contact paper over the screen to dim the light just a little bit. Now we have a light table, that didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. This is also one of my found treasures. The same table as my Lego center. Underneath the second level, is a basket of light table goodies. They will change as the year progresses. Right now, they have stacking cups, refreezeable ice cubs, and our Magnatiles. And last but certainly not least, is our dramatic play center. Right now, it is set up as a kitchen. We have baby dolls, baby beds, vests, community helper hats, pots and pans, food, plates, silver wear, and most important of all, the actual kitchen. This is right next to our sensory table. As the year progresses it will turn into an auto shop, grocery store, doctors office, and flower shop! I hope you found something that can help you with your classroom and centers! Make sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram, where I share ideas all the time! You can make the center cards yourself, but to save you the time and energy, I have these listen at TpT. They are editable too! So you can call the centers whatever you want.
I woke up excited. Today was the day to introduce the kids to ADVENTURE DAY! Where would we go? What would we do? To kick off the ...
DLR Group was tasked with converting an empty space into an imaginative environment for young learners at North Kansas City Schools’ Early Education Center in […]
These center rotation charts will help organize your classroom stations and make everything run more smoothly. Grab the freebie included!
Most preschoolers like the dramatic play area. I typically I've had my dramatic play area set up as a kitchen or a dress up area. It was BORING! The kids mostly dumped out the food and it felt like there was very little productive play. It was also a big mess to clean up at the end of play time. As a preschool teacher I know play is important. Last summer I read a book about the importance of play in early childhood and decided I wanted to change up my dramatic play area. I brainstormed and planned out a few dramatic play centers. I love to craft and create so I gathered props and materials and made visuals. My first dramatic play center was a Farmer's Market. It was a huge hit! I loved it and better yet the kids loved it. I started seeing more productive play and the labels helped make clean up easier. I decided to create some more dramatic play centers for my classroom. I have used the same area and furniture to create several different dramatic play opportunities this year. This was our baby center which was set up to teach and encourage doll play. We set up a science lab in our dramatic play area. Our science lab allowed us to explore science materials and try experiments. We set up a vet center this year too. We even created these crates for our animals. Our construction zone was a lot of fun. We stocked it with different building materials and props. During our fairytale unit we set up a fairytale land, complete with a pop up castle tent and lots of fairytale dress up props. This was so much fun and encouraged tons of fabulous pretend play. There were dragons, knights and witches casting magic spells on the land. Right now my classroom is set up as a restaurant. That means food. The good news is the play has more productive, meaning there is less food dumping then when I just had a kitchen area. We've even talked about the jobs people have in a restaurant. Chef, waiter/waitress, cashier, dishwasher, customer, etc. This week we're going to try doing a mock restaurant experience with real food where the children get to try all five of these jobs out first hand. Wish us luck! This year I've been building up my dramatic play area. I've collected some great props and have lots of visuals to use. The visuals can be found in my TPT store. Of course there are lots of dramatic play sets available for purchase or you can always make your own. Just have fun with it and create centers your children are interested in. You'll be glad you did.
This FREE class about "free-flowing" centers will help you increase learning and save time with independent Pre-K & Kindergarten centers!
