Dramatic Play Area Ideas

[Christina72684]

I've only had a few different types of dramatic play areas, mostly it's been the obvious one: kitchen. I've had a pretend doctor's office/vet office that wasn't too bad. I'd like to change it up every month or maybe every 2 weeks depending on the time of year and how difficult it is to put up/tear down.

Could I see pictures of areas that you've done? I'm trying to plan out the next few months. In Sept and Oct we are going to do a lot with community helpers and fire safety. I'd like to do maybe a fire station or something since we are in the Fire Prevention Parade in our town. I better get looking on Pinterest too, but thought I'd ask some daycare providers what works best, tips, ideas, etc first Thanks!

[spinnymarie]

I haven't done them yet, but I've seen: Grocery Store (food on shelves, carts/baskets, cash register); Office (computers at a table, notebooks and pens, work bags, clip boards); Post Office (mailbox, sorting boxes, stamps); Beauty Salon (hair equipment, chairs, smocks, cash register)

That's all I got at the moment. A gym/YMCA would be fun. A daycare

[Thriftylady]

I am just restarting my daycare, but have the kitchen and grocery store ready because they share many of the same items. The kitchen can also be used to play restaurant, if you add some little note pads to take orders.

[SignMeUp]

I don't have pictures, but we do restaurants - tablecloth and cloth napkins, an order tablet & pencil, etc.
We have play food pizza that divides into six pieces, that fits on a small pizza pan. I begged a couple of small pizza boxes from the place nearby so we could do "deliveries" too. For that restaurant we have red checked tablecloth and napkins, red vests for the waitstaff.
We have a bakery, with plastic spatula, baking sheet, play cookies made from decorated corrugated cardboard covered with felt with puffy paint designs. We can make flower cookies, gingerbreads, etc. For muffins/cupcakes we have a muffin pan and I glued several cupcake liners together and stuffed a felt top with fiberfill. I made small loaves of bread that fit into small bread pans (that we also use for real baking). Donuts are a tube of stretchy tan knit fabric stuffed with fiberfill. (Some of this stuff looks good enough to eat :
We have a hamburger restaurant where the waitstaff wears visors. I used a fast food french fry container to make a template for a container for our own corrugated cardboard french fries. Hamburgers are made from felt, as is cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle slices. Dollar store ketchup and mustard containers.
Sorry, no pictures. Too busy making stuff :: which I find fun.

We do firefighters with plastic hats and short chunks of an old leaky hose.
Sometimes we take out pop-up tents for houses so there can be lots of fires.

I have an assortment of plastic tools and hard hats. A few tool boxes too, but they currently get fought over so we aren't using them. Most of these are garage sale finds - it doesn't matter if you have six screwdrivers and only five wrenches :: These are really good outside at the playhouses too. Apparently those houses need a lot of work :: Oh, and again, the corrugated cardboard -- you can cut handsaws out of it and kids can go to town sawing whatever they want -- cardboard won't actually make a mark ::

[MsLisa]

I love making Open Dramatic Plays! lovethis
I've done Pet Shops, Restaurants, Grocery Store, Veterinarian/Doctor Office, Flower Shop, & Bakery.

Here's my Beach, Space Station & Restaurant theme I did.

[starz0123]

Current dramatic play area here is a baby day care. Both gender are getting a lot out of it. One before that was a bakery (our town doesn't have one and the children decided it should), we've also had an art gallery and invited family for a special viewing, a hair salon, restaurant.

Whatever theme we have there's always plenty of material to promote development of literacy skills and scope to move into other curriculum areas (daily checklists, pens, menus, blackboards, appointment book, paper, receipt books, a word wall, books on theme, picture cards for memory game/pattern making/counting/tally, songs/poetry/fingerplay, real food to make own lunch in the restaurant, water jugs and cups for learning about volume, scales for measurement etc).

[Controlled Chaos]

I love making Open Dramatic Plays! lovethis
I've done Pet Shops, Restaurants, Grocery Store, Veterinarian/Doctor Office, Flower Shop, & Bakery.

Here's my Beach, Space Station & Restaurant theme I did.

Ms Lisa - I want to go to your daycare! It looks so darling!

[Thriftylady]

Current dramatic play area here is a baby day care. Both gender are getting a lot out of it. One before that was a bakery (our town doesn't have one and the children decided it should), we've also had an art gallery and invited family for a special viewing, a hair salon, restaurant.

Whatever theme we have there's always plenty of material to promote development of literacy skills and scope to move into other curriculum areas (daily checklists, pens, menus, blackboards, appointment book, paper, receipt books, a word wall, books on theme, picture cards for memory game/pattern making/counting/tally, songs/poetry/fingerplay, real food to make own lunch in the restaurant, water jugs and cups for learning about volume, scales for measurement etc).

I'd like to hear more about making lunch!

[starz0123]

I'd like to hear more about making lunch!

It is a messy and looooonnnng lunchtime those days ::
Jokes aside :

• Kids use own produce they have been growing we have a number of mini containers growing things from this range http://mrfothergills-seeds-bulbs.com...tle-Gardeners/
• Kids are given a tub close to lunchtime with ingredients they may need i.e. bread, butter, ham, cheese (where possible I will have prepped these earlier)
• I googled picture recipes for non-readers and printed a number of easy lunch/snack recipes the kids can follow and put into a display folder
• I googled table setting and found a template of how the table should be set up and laminated as a placemat
• Sometimes we have packed lunches made up (by the kids) and placed into brown paper bags – they ‘draw’ each person’s name on the bags
• Clean up on the days we do this involves a big tub of soapy water, a tub for rinsing and teatowels for drying
• If it looks like the children’s play is heading toward cooking I have little clips to that we attach to the pages of the recipes we have ingredients for, sometimes I need to quickly prepare a batch of rice/pasta but mostly I just provide the ingredients and let the kids go for it
• I let them use real crockery/cutlery /glassware etc
• If I am doing future planning from this play I will bring out my own recipe books and we'll choose a recipe to make together, we make a shopping list and go for a walk to the supermarket
• I 'prepped' the children with lots of dough making before I gradually introduced real food - making dough shapes for me to put in oven, making morning tea share plates using sultanas/cheese cubes/crackers, making fruit salad with pre prepped fruit

Other Aussies - these are some links I have found useful for EYLF outcomes

http://www.childandfamilyservices.com.au/public/uploads/Educator_Resources/EYLF_MEAL_PREPARATION_AND_COOKING_EXPERIENCE.pdf

http://www.healthykids.nsw.gov.au/downloads/file/campaignsprograms/HowMMlinkstoEYLFfactsheet.pdf

http://www.teachingsolutions.com.au/samplepages/sp_ASOW.pdf

http://www.raiselearning.com.au/blogs/news/2765692-back-to-basics-a-brief-summary-of-early-childhood-observation-methods-and-techniques

http://www.globalkidsoz.com.au/eylf__cooking_capers.php

http://nrich.maths.org/content/id/10698/cooking.pdf

[Blackcat31]

It is a messy and looooonnnng lunchtime those days ::
Jokes aside :

• Kids use own produce they have been growing we have a number of mini containers growing things from this range http://mrfothergills-seeds-bulbs.com...tle-Gardeners/
• Kids are given a tub close to lunchtime with ingredients they may need i.e. bread, butter, ham, cheese (where possible I will have prepped these earlier)
• I googled picture recipes for non-readers and printed a number of easy lunch/snack recipes the kids can follow and put into a display folder
• I googled table setting and found a template of how the table should be set up and laminated as a placemat
• Sometimes we have packed lunches made up (by the kids) and placed into brown paper bags – they ‘draw’ each person’s name on the bags
• Clean up on the days we do this involves a big tub of soapy water, a tub for rinsing and teatowels for drying
• If it looks like the children’s play is heading toward cooking I have little clips to that we attach to the pages of the recipes we have ingredients for, sometimes I need to quickly prepare a batch of rice/pasta but mostly I just provide the ingredients and let the kids go for it
• I let them use real crockery/cutlery /glassware etc
• If I am doing future planning from this play I will bring out my own recipe books and we'll choose a recipe to make together, we make a shopping list and go for a walk to the supermarket
• I 'prepped' the children with lots of dough making before I gradually introduced real food - making dough shapes for me to put in oven, making morning tea share plates using sultanas/cheese cubes/crackers, making fruit salad with pre prepped fruit

Other Aussies - these are some links I have found useful for EYLF outcomes

http://www.childandfamilyservices.com.au/public/uploads/Educator_Resources/EYLF_MEAL_PREPARATION_AND_COOKING_EXPERIENCE.pdf

http://www.healthykids.nsw.gov.au/downloads/file/campaignsprograms/HowMMlinkstoEYLFfactsheet.pdf

http://www.teachingsolutions.com.au/samplepages/sp_ASOW.pdf

http://www.raiselearning.com.au/blogs/news/2765692-back-to-basics-a-brief-summary-of-early-childhood-observation-methods-and-techniques

http://www.globalkidsoz.com.au/eylf__cooking_capers.php

http://nrich.maths.org/content/id/10698/cooking.pdf

That is fantastic!!

Thanks for sharing all of that!

My DCK's have been growing their own produce too and having them gather and prepare the ingredients from a list as you described above is great!

I really like this idea! We already serve/eat and clean up as a "family" so including something similar could be totally doable.

Again, thanks for sharing that!