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Building the perfect block center for your preschool classroom

Courtesy Photo: www.prekinders.com This block center show all material organized by shapes of blocks. Materials are also at the height of the child’s reach.

The block center provides children with opportunities to create, cooperate, and communicate. Social learning occurs in the center of the blocks as children work together to share materials, space, and ideas. In addition, children strengthen their fine and gross motor skills in this center.

Having a block learning center is vital to an early childhood classroom. Block play helps children develop basic concepts of architecture and engineering. Block play also helps children learn to work with others and gives them creative design opportunities.

My classroom block center includes Large hollow blocks, ramps, unit blocks, small blocks, cardboard blocks, plastic cups, and medium-sized Legos. Anything that can use to make a building structure of any type is an excellent material to add to the center. You should also include paper and writing materials to encourage the children to draw what they built or what they are going to build.  

First things first, you guessed it – label all the things! A well-organized block area has labels on every tub and a matching tag on the shelf. Putting a label on every tub will help the kids put the material away correctly.

The block center should be located in an area where noise is permitted. The children will be building and knocking down their buildings, creating much noise. Next to the dramatic play center would be ideal.

Playing with blocks helps children develop their vocabularies, improves math skills, and will even teach them about gravity, balance, and geometry. Children will learn how to describe colors, shapes, sizes, and positions in the block center as they build various structures.

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Kindle preschoolers love for reading with the library center

Courtesy Photo: https://www.gslp-gaithersburg.org/virtual-tour This picture of a library center shows one set up options. A small couch is added for comfort.

A preschool classroom library center is a defined space that children can use independently to browse or listen to books. The library center is essential because it creates a learning experience enriched in language and vocabulary. It also helps establish a love for reading.

All aspects of language such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking are strengthened in the library center. When children hear stories, they learn new words, and their vocabulary grows. Children develop phonological awareness when they hear and explore the sounds of language in books.

BOOKS are the number one item needed for this center. Preschool cannot read just yet, so audiobooks and picture books are necessary. It's not about being able to read but introducing the children to the concept of reading.

I love to create a comfortable space in the library center. Bean bag chairs, pillows, carpet squares, or comfy foam furniture to sit on is an excellent addition to the center. A magnet board with magnetic letters or numbers and paper and pencils or crayons for children to create their own books is also necessary. Stuffed animals can be added so the children can "read" to them.

The library center should be located in a quiet area of the classroom. I have mine located in the corner of the room furthest away from the dramatic play and music center. No more than two to three children should be in this center at once because you are trying to promote a quiet time to read.

One of the main goals of any early childhood teacher is to help young children develop a love of reading and books. Reading requires a lot of practice, and to practice, you need reading materials. It's simple, the more children are exposed to books, the more they learn to love them.

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Dramatic play center that will have kids learning through play

Courtesy Photo: Pinterest This dramatic play center is designed for children to play pretend kitchen. the teacher added fake plants and curtains for a more homey effect.

Dramatic play is a type of play in which children assume various roles and act them out. Dramatic play engages the imagination, builds confidence, and prepares young learners to tackle real-life situations. The dramatic play center offers all the developmental domains such as motor development, language and literacy development, cognitive development, social/emotional development, and values.

A good placement for a dramatic play center would be near a block center or another area where children's play tends to be noisy. Avoid placing the center too close to the book area or other centers that require quiet concentration. This center needs lots of room for children to have free movement to act and pretend.

Children can quickly become bored with using the same materials repeatedly. I like to use different props and themes to supply various types of materials. Some suggested materials are clothing, fabric, masks and capes, boxes, purses, luggage, writing materials, and miscellaneous items such as a camera, sunglasses, crowns, and wands.

Always remember that the props and themes you choose for dramatic play should be age-appropriate and appropriate for the children's developmental level. I always start the year off by setting up a play kitchen. This is an area that young children are familiar with, and as the year progresses, materials can be changed to fit the themes and units you are being taught.

Again as I said many times before, labeling items and where they belong will help the children navigate easily through the center and make clean up a breeze. I prefer to use picture labels for this center rather than word labels. Take photos of the items in the center and tap them where the materials are placed. (Just remember to change out pictures as you change the props.)

Dramatic play allows children to express themselves and use creativity. It also introduces symbolic thinking and encourages cooperation among children. Children will often act out behaviors and actions they see in real life in a dramatic play center. Allow play to be unstructured in this center, with little to no modeling needed.

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Create enriched learning experiences with your art center

Courtesy Photo:  https://www.caringcornerpreschool.com/Centers/artcenter.htm 

An art center is a place where children can go to express their feelings and ideas and, above all, be creative! Every child is an artist in the art center. The art center is the core of creativity in any classroom, especially in preschool. First of all, preschool art has the ability to transform, calm and inspire.

An art center is a place that promotes high-level thinking and problem-solving that is rich in vocabulary. Children will learn and develop skills in all learning domains language, literacy, math, science, social studies, fine and gross motor, and social/emotional skills through art.

Some materials that create a thriving and fun art center are; play dough, stencils, dot markers, paper/foam letters, feathers, tissue paper, stickers, and easels. More common materials such as construction paper, white paper, crayons, markers, colored pencils, glue, scissors, and paint are also needed.

Throughout the year, as themes change, I also like to add materials that tie into the unit being taught. For example, if the learning unit is about fall, I would include leaves in the center and suggest that the children paint using the leaves instead of the brushes.

Placement is everything when setting up an art center in your classroom. I placed my art center in the tile area of my classroom. Remember, these are 3 and 4-year-olds; messes are going to happen.

Having the art center on tiles or a plastic mat will be easier for clean-up. In addition, if at all possible, set up the art center near a sink. This will keep that mess in a localized area.

Posting the children’s artwork in the classroom will help to inspire other artists. Create an art gallery for the art center. Simply hang a string with clothespins on the wall and allow the children to hang their own work up.

Embed math, science, literature, and illustration experiences into the art center. Give the children the experience of learning other subjects through art. Be intentional when you plan, know your students, and reflect on your students.

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The centers of Preschool

Hey Y'all, my name is Theresa Mulligan, and I am a first-year preschool teacher. I would like to share some tips to make classroom center time more successful. This blog is part of an assignment for my MMC 1101 class at the College of Central Florida. This is my senior year, and I will be graduating in May 2022.

Courtesy Photo: 1stprespscc.org/classrooms/older-preschool/attachment/older-preschool-classroom-1/   The classroom in this photo is an example for how to incorporate centers into a room smaller in size. Shelving to define the center area is eliminated and materials for each center are stored on the tables. 

Learning and play go hand-in-hand in Early Childhood education. Play is often associated with recess during school hours. But the best way to incorporate structured and unstructured play in preschool is center time.

Centers are activities located in specific areas around the classroom. The time schedule for these activities is often called centers. Children work in small groups during center time, and they can also work independently.

Center time can be very hectic when there isn't a substantial structure or organization. Trust me, I learned firsthand. I was hired as a preschool teacher mid-school year and was given 24 hours to set up a  functional classroom for a class to start the next day.

Center time was loud and wild. My students were running around the class like wild animals. Threw many trials and errors, I finally found a system that worked.

Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, motor skills, and physical, cognitive, and social/emotional strength. It is vital for healthy brain development. Through play, children at a very early age engage and interact with the world around them.

Centers allow young children to learn through hands-on play in the most meaningful way. This is why centers are an essential part of a high-quality preschool classroom.

There are two types of play that centers are based on, structure and unstructured play. Unstructured, free play is the best type of play for young children. This is a play that just happens, depending on what makes your child's interest at the time. Free play isn't planned and lets your child use his imagination and move at his own pace. Whereas structured play is very different. It's more organized and happens at a fixed time or in a set space. It's often led by a grown-up.

Courtesy Photo: https://fun-a-day.com/preschool-block-center/  This storage shelf has an outline of the blocks for an easy clean up method. The children also learn to match the shapes when putting the blocks away.

I think you need to decide for yourself the best way to include center time in your classroom. You'll need to consider your students' needs, your expectations, your administrator's expectations, staffing in your classroom, and how many students you have in your classroom. As the teacher, you will determine which centers are available for your students.

You're also responsible for what materials are within each of these centers. I suggest using material that can be used for multiple themes because it does get costly. Having materials that correlate to each center easily accessible within that area will also help control the chaos.

Although we encourage unstructured play, having materials labeled and placed in specific areas helps the children decide what to play with and, most importantly, is easy to clean up. Being organized is key! Having materials that correlate to each center easily accessible within that area will also help control the chaos.

Center time is significant, so lessening the time the children need to collect materials to engage in play will make the outcome of centers more beneficial.

Courtesy Photo: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/46373071148233354/ This photo show how this teacher laid out her centers. As seen, the materials in each center is easily accessible for the children.