Dramatic Centre Fun and FREEBIE!

I've had some e-mails over the past month in regards to how our Dramatic Centre works.

When designing the space for the Dramatic Centre this year, I kept in mind that last school year it was one of the most popular areas to play in so I wanted to make the space large enough to reflect all the learning taking place here.

Our Dramatic Centre is in the middle of our classroom.  I used the kitchen furniture, along with the backside of the blocks shelf and a puppet theatre, to frame the area off.

My DECE and I listen to the conversations from the students to get ideas as to what this area can turn in to.

A few weeks back, some students were eating snack at the Snack Table and they realized that they both had muffins.  They told me that they had made the muffins with their families on the weekend.  So I suggested that they could turn the Dramatic Centre into a bakery and show the other students in our class how to make muffins and other baked goods.

The children were very excited to make a sign for their new area and got to work on it right away.

Other children who wanted to help decided to make some baked goods using materials found around the classroom.

The above picture is of a "pie".

We discussed the many different types of things a bakery would sell, including the various baked goods (bread, cookies, etc.) to different types of drinks (coffee, tea, etc.).

I had one student interested in writing down these ideas in the form of a list.

The next day I brought in a plastic cupcake toy.  The students enjoyed using it and decided that they wanted to take orders and deliver them.

After listening to the children, I asked if any of them wanted to create pretend baked goods such as those on their list.  They were excited to mix flour, water and salt to form a play dough that could be baked and used for their items at the bakery.

All of the students helped measure, pour and mix our dough.

We turned our dough into so many different baked goods!

I love how the students used scissors to add detail to their items.

Once everything had baked, we were ready to sort and label our goods, just like in a bakery.  The students decided to write labels for themselves.

I supported and extended their learning by creating these ordering forms which they loved!

Since it's still early in the school year, these order forms were perfect for both the readers and non-readers as they could easily look at the pictures.

You can find all of the above (and LOTS more!) in my Bakery Dramatic Play Center.

 

Last week, we were noticing that the students were talking more and more about Halloween.

I saw a creative idea from Ms. M, a colleague from another school, and decided to modify it for my classroom.  When I was at the Dollar Store last weekend (I am there so often I think they know me by now!), I found small plastic Halloween pieces that I thought the students would like.

 I put them out and found that the students organized and labelled them all in containers.

We noticed that the students were really interested in mixing the ingredients in a pot and pretending to make spells and magic.

 

This is what our Dramatic Play Centre looked like last week.

So today we put out a "Book of Spells" along with writing paper encouraging the students to write down ingredients and directions on how to make their spell.

 

The students enjoyed writing their spells and placing them in the binder.

We added a few "magic words" that they might use for their spells.

 

We posted some Halloween words to encourage writing as well and, of course, a "Beware of Witches" sign!

Some students wanted to add more 'scary' things to our Halloween Dramatic Play area so we cut up some large black garbage bags and hung them from the ceiling.

Another great idea from Ms. M ... mix up some real "potion" (using vinegar and baking soda)... I think the students will love this experiment at the end of the week!

 

You can download your Witches' Brew Dramatic Play Centre for FREE by clicking the picture below.

I hope your students will enjoy playing at your Dramatic Centre as much as mine are!