by PRP Group, on 07/24/2023
Preschoolers need to have several outlets throughout the day where they get to express their individual wants and needs within the framework of the classroom. For many educators, that’s called “playtime.” Playtime is crucial, and playtime is beautiful, but can you imagine how mundane it is for a child to have the same blocks of play every day from September to June? With center-based play, you can change what those play centers look like from month to month so that kids are always experiencing something new.
Rotate several centers
To keep things fresh at Brooklyn Preschool of Science, we have several centers ready to go to align with the ideas we’re learning about. But we also like to come up with fun ideas on the fly that are related to what students are learning.
For example, if we’re doing a theme on plants for the month of April, we might bring out farm animals to create an agriculture-themed center that will promote the month’s concepts. Or we might walk across the street to the florist and buy some cheap flowers to set up with easels and rocks and brushes. We’ll show students how to use the rocks to crush the flower petals and make beautiful chlorophyll paintings.