Dramatic Play Center

Many classrooms have Housekeeping or Home Living centers where children role-play cooking and keeping house. We recommend thinking of it as a Dramatic Play center. This way, you’re free to change the center whenever it’s useful. Changing themes and props allows the teacher to push-in a broader range of vocabulary and concepts.

Materials

• Housekeeping furniture
• Dress-up clothes (to represent various roles)
• Dolls and doll furniture
• Mirror
• Kitchen items (pots, pans, dishes, etc.)
• Found materials (food containers and bottles, etc.)
• Items specific to the particular theme of the center (farmer’s market, office, hair salon, etc.)
• Labeled storage (photo + text)
• Writing materials
• Related books