Come eat dinner at our restuarant

Changing your dramatic play area will keep children interested in real dramatic play.  I have seen the kitchen a big mess of food on the floor and babies in the oven.  If the area is always the same, the toys tend to become just things to throw around.
It's a great way to include real language and to practice it over and over again. 

We turned our dramatic play area into a restaurant.
It really is the easiest way to change your dramatic play area without changing or adding a lot.

I made a menu from ads in the newspaper.  Make sure you use everyday words like appetizers.  It will increase your students' vocabulary and connect their play and behaviors to real life.


When I first open the center, I model how you would play restuarant.  This will prevent them from writing on your menu and keep them using the other materials properly.  I might say, "Hello, I am your waitress."  "Here is our menu." 


What would you like to order?  I will give this to the cook.

I included some small notepads and pencils, so the waiters and waitresses could use their pre-writing skills during play.  I found this set of 5 at the Dollar Tree.

Just make sure you get your customer's order right or they might not come back to your restaurant.

Here are some interesting comments I overheard at the restaurant.
"Your restaurant is nasty.  There is food on the floor."
"That's not what I ordered."
"How much do I owe?"
"I want ice cream and that and cake."
"Don't you have plates at your restaurant?"


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Math Centers- Number work

Image
Children get to explore numbers in a variety of forms.  Numeral to set These types of games are very simple to make.  Pick any theme.  Cut shapes or buy them already cut out.  Then find something that goes with the shape to use as counters.  I like using those shaped erasers you can buy at the dollar store. Here are butterflies cut from the ellison machine. I put numbers 1-10 on the front and 11-20 on the back just so higher level thinkers can have a challenge.  I have snowmen, cars, Christmas trees, hearts, and flowers.  Any little manipulative piece can be paired with a shape to make a thematic game. You can also buy store bought games and adapt them to your needs.  This game is cute but is too easy.  It is set up more like flash cards so that kids can count the number of M&M's on each card.  I use bowls or thought about making candy jars with the little M&M pieces. great number work This site has the cutest printable number games. Fun and good for fine mot
Read more

Changes, Changes- A book of building and a craft too

Image
Changes, Changes is a book by Pat Hutchins This book has no words and I was amazed at how it kept all the children's interest.  We predicted what the people would build next.  At the end of the story we recalled all the different things that were built.  They did great with it.  Some even asked to read it again.  Since we share all our books from Creative Curriculum with another class, we had to give the book up for the day. I decided to let the children make their own structures like in the book. Like the book states, plans change. My lesson plan shows the intent of the activity below. First, we worked together to watercolor paint a large piece of paper.  I then cut out shapes from the paper, and I added some other paper scraps from other cutting projects.  Next the kids were asked to glue some shapes down to make something.  I recorded what they made on each page along with their name. We turned it into a book we will keep in our library.  Now, the kids can read our story. We
Read more

Stages of Writing

Image
     I don't have a lot of experience with a specific writing curriculum, but I have acquired a lot of knowledge though observation, conferences, college classes, and reading.  I was very fortunate to have a really good language arts teacher in college.  She showed us how important real literature and writing go hand in hand to teach children to read and write.      Before a child is ready to write, Handwriting Without Tears , has shown that children progress in markings in a certain order.  First, side to side, then up and down, then a cross, then a circle, then a square, then a triangle.  This just states that diagonal writing is the hardest for little hands to make.  So, don't start writing with letter A.  When children start to assign meaning to their marks, then starts the real writing. I found this very neat worksheet somewhere and thought it was a good description for parents to look at.  I hang it up on my parent board, so they can see that their child isn't ju
Read more