Early Learning Central » dramatic play

Our Grocery Store

mjudd — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 14:36:39 +0000

With all of the gardens beginning to grow now that nice weather has finally arrived, the students in our Full Day Kindergarten class are excited about plants, both flowers and food. One of the children brought in pictures of her family’s food garden and showed it around the classroom. My teaching partner and I decided to change our dramatic play centre to a grocery store to capitalize on the students interest in the picture and how food grows.

We gathered all of the plastic food, made store signs, printed labels for shelving and went to the library to find books on the food groups. We also made up sheets for the students to print, or draw, their own grocery lists, as well as their own receipts. We set up after school, and today, we made a big “production” of opening our store. The children loved it!

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Adding Literacy to Dramatic Play

mjudd — Thu, 17 May 2012 23:13:44 +0000

Beside our dramatic play centre, I placed one of our smaller tables, near the windows with my signs for the flower shop. In the centre of the table, I put a basket of pencils and markers and some blank paper. When I introduced the centre to the children, I told them the flower shop needed help. I explained that we needed more signs and pictures of flowers for customers to see. I also told them we were running out of order forms for when customers called in to the store for deliveries, and asked if they could help make some of these to help.

It was amazing to see what the children created! We had beautiful pictures, sale signs, and unique order forms. One child even made a price list of flowers. She drew flowers on one half of the paper and numbers on the other!

It never amazes me what children can create, if given enough time and opportunity.

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A Kindergarten Flower Shop

mjudd — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:40:31 +0000

Now that the children have shown interest in flowers, we decided to change our dramatic play centre from a Veterinarian’s Office to a flower store.

I went to a store and bought a few bunches of artificial flowers, a small plastic shovel, green foam blocks, and small plastic plant pots. We had some plastic containers that we could utilize as vases. I put some of our sand in a medium sized plastic dish, and added the shovel and pots to it. I set up the cash register, and made 3 signs for the windows that are in that corner of our room. I also put out a play phone that they could use to take orders.

Tomorrow, I will add a literacy centre beside the flower shop.

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