Dramatic Play Area

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.