We created a campsite in the area. A large 3 D tree was made from old appliance boxes and attached to the wall. The trunck was flush, the branches made a canopy over the area. The children helped to sponge paint leaves and these were attached to the branches. We brought in a small child size tent, plastic picnic table, water container, and cooler. Rocks were made from paper bags the children painted and stuffed to make a fire circle. Small logs were brought in from my back yard and tissue paper flames were added to make this look like a camp fire... The children loved this and brought in their own accessories from home to add to this center (small lantern, sleeping bag ). To utilize the kitchen furniture already in this area I decided to make a search and hunt game. I brought in pictures of woodland animals ( deer, rabbit, raccoon, bear, groundhog, weasel, squirrel ect...). I taped these pictures into the inside of the refrigerator, sink, stove and wardrobe doors. On the outside of the coordinating doors the children wrote clues to guess what each animal might be. This created a guessing game that they palyed over and over!!! For example..... I am Black, I am a large animal, I have fur. What am I? ......... A BEAR !!!! The simple clues were quickly memorized and often I heard the children asking each other the clues.... ************************************************************************* Bakery Set up your kitchen area; add a counter and cash register and a menu. Put play clay, cookie cutters, candy molds, cookbooks, aprons, etc. into the kitchen area. This is pretty messy so you may want to cover the floor with a plastic drop cloth. Have a baker from a local bakery come in and do a simple food experience to reinforce the concept. Pizza Hut Your local Pizza Hut will give you small, medium, and large cups and pizza boxes if you ask. Put a red and white checked tablecloth on your housekeeping table. You will also need a cash register, pencils, small note pad for taking orders, play pizza, aprons, menus etc. McDonalds Same as above except get props from a McDonalds restaurant. Veterinarian's Office Set up the dramatic play area as a veterinarian's office. Use stuffed animals as the patients. Provide Band-Aids, bandages, doctor's kits, etc. It is especially fun to do during a pets or zoo unit. Block Area Ideas Foam Core Take a large piece of foam core and cut out shapes. You need many pieces the same size. Use duct tape and tape two pieces together, one with a shape cut out and one without. Not all pieces need to have shapes. Have this and a blanket out for the kids. They can make mazes, forts, a post office, hoses, and so on. Block Sketches It can be expensive to take photographs of the block creations your students make. Also, some children stay for a long time in the block are and don't have a "paper" to take home and show Mom and Dad. My solution, make a simple sketch of the child's block creation and label it with their name. Building With Blocks And Language Cards When children are playing with the blocks, place some cards nearby with the words (and a simple picture) tall, short, wide, narrow, long, short, straight, curvy, zigzag, etc. These will give the children building ideas as well as increasing mathematical concepts and vocabulary. Knights And Horses Add some Fisher Price knights and horses to the block area. The children can build castles. Texture Blocks Cover some boxes with different textures (material, sandpaper, lace, etc.) or large boxes with carpet remnants and vinyl flooring remnants. Place these texture blocks in your block area and let the children explore their textures as they build with the boxes and blocks. Ice Cave Put the block center in a corner of a room. Hang long pieces of white butcher-block paper around the edges of the center. Put blue butcher-block paper on the walls and add blue and white streamers hanging from the ceiling. Put blue nap mats on the floor and paint some of the blocks white and wrap others in white paper. Throw in tons of cotton balls and add stuffed polar bears, seals, fish, penguins, etc. The children can use this area as an ice cave. House Painter Carry your bucket of paint and your paintbrush with you as you climb, climb, climb you ladder. Now stretch way up on your toes to paint the edge of the roof. Paint the walls next with big, broad strokes. Use small strokes to carefully paint around the windows. Doctors Dress up in scrubs and make "Boo-Boo" reports. You can also do "Five Little Monkeys Jumping In The Bed." Take temperatures. ************************************************************************* To make dramatic play interesting, change your props to correspond with your theme When learning about themselves hairdresser, doctor, etc using dolls not each other For number correspondence setting table have a party for ( you pick the number) To learn caring for others veternary (sorry spelling) Animal dr using stuffed animals Transportation suitcases, tickets, brochures Seasonal change the doll clothing to suit weather Do your cooking expereinces in dramatic play and make a cookbook with recipes so children can role play add empty food boxes so children can shop and cook ************************************************************************* in dramatic play we have had a restaurant, a pet store (stuffed pets supplied by children) this one was very interesting because we had an elephant, a lion and a few other strange pets; a construction site, a fire station and a grocery store. ************************************************************************* Some books you can add to your travel agency are: On the Go....by Ann Morris Things That Go....by Anne Rockwell Your First Airplane Ride......Fred Rogers ************************************************************************* Bakers Shop ovens out of boxes cake mixes/ingredients fake food cupcake papers cupcake pan sprinkles containers measuring cups/spoons spatula towels/sponges play dough posters/pictures cake pans rolling pins hot pads/mitts mixing bowls/spoons old mixer with cord cut off cookie sheets icing tubes aprons ************************************************************************* Restaurant You could also have a plastic vase and artificial flowers for the restaurant table. Flower Shop - a dramatic play idea for spring. I found several plastic vases at a thrift store, and filled them with plaster of paris half way, so they are weighted - not so tippy. I have a variety of inexpensive flowers to "arrange" in the vases. I pre-cut the stems down a little. The children can also stick fake green plants and flowers into small plastic flower pots that have styrofoam balls wedged in it. ************************************************************************* Set it up according to a nursery ryme. Like Little red riding hood, the 3 bears, etc... Make a Vet. clinic-- stethoscope, animals, syringe, gauze, trucks w/ horse trailors, dog carriers, white jacket for the vet. Grocery store--register, paper for list, shopping cart, paper bags. Post office-- envelopes, pens, stamps, mail box. School-- chalk board, chalk, desks, paper, old school books... Office-- old adding machine, type writer, telephone. Workshop/ construction site -- dump truck, cement truck, tools, tool belts, hard hats, measuring tools, building supplies (blocks, cardboard), paper to write down measurements and draw plans. ************************************************************************* Since Valentine's Day is coming up how about adding a Post Office to your dramatic play area? You could set up a Writing Center in one area in your room - paper, Markers/Crayons/Large Pencils, alphabet rubber stamps, envelopes (I save all the envelopes from my "junk" mail that I never use, for this center each year.), etc. etc. Then you could turn your housekeeping corner into a Post Office. Have a Post Master who weighs your letters and sells stamps (stickers), have a large mailbox for mailing your letters, have another post office worker who sorts the mail into "mail bags" and perhaps stamps it with a rubber stamp (the postmark), perhaps another child can be the "mailman" and carry the mailbag about the room delivering the mail to the children around the room or to their cubbies. ETC. ETC. As you get close to Valentine's Day here are some Ideas I've used before in conjunction with the Post Office. 1. Visit your real post office, take a tour and have every child buy a stamp there. 2. Make a Valentine before going to the post office, put the stamp you bought on the envelope and mail it while at the post office. Watch for it to arrive at your door at home! IDEA FOR BACK AT SCHOOL: One day to further use our "school post office" I had each child draw the name of someone in the class. This was your "secret" valentine....sshhh! Don't tell them you drew their name! Then each child made a valentine for their "secret" valentine. They not only decorated it, they also dictated a kind thought that the teacher wrote on the valentine for them. When they were done they "mailed" it at our school post office. At the end of the morning each child drew one envelope from the mailbox and "delivered" it to the person who's name was on the front. Everyone had fun opening their Valentine and discovering who their "secret" valentine friend was. ************************************************************************* You could set it up as a Veterinarian's office using stuffed animals, bandaids, bandages, and the usual doctor's kits. You could also do a grocery store with cash register and play food, etc.