Let’s start with the obvious. What’s a center?
A center is a term used in public schools to describe an activity area…a center.
Why would we do that?
It makes the school day fun. And if you have ever read my blog, you know I’m all about having fun. These ideas aren’t just for homeschoolers, though. Preschoolers would love this, as would kids on break from school. It helps with the I’m bored spiel.
Maybe the term “center” is a misnomer, because we don’t actually have a dedicated space for the centers. They can pretty much play with them anywhere.
One of our centers is a day care. This is probably the simplest of our centers because we have so many daughters, thereby having a lot of baby dolls.
Some things we have in our center:
a high chair
laundry baskets turned into baby beds
makeshift diapers
bottles
newborn gloves
teething toys
baby toys
baby books
And these super cute note pads I made at Artscow. I thought they would have fun dropping babies off and filling out the form, and picking babies up and receiving the form. And I was RIGHT! Huge hit! I usually drop a baby off to make it even more fun. They like my funny comments.
Feel free to steal my idea in any way. And if you improve upon it, please show me so I can too.
Some other things we plan to add:
bibs (Holy Batman they cost $3 a bib here)
receiving blankets
cloth diapers for baby dolls
tiny diaper bags
more doll toys
So pretty much the things you would have on hand anyway if you had a baby.
We do keep these things together and put up when not doing school. This keeps them fresh and new. We also try to limit each center to once a week so no one gets too bored. Since there are four centers, it’s not usually a problem.
Our other centers are office, doctor and vet.
Do you have centers? What are in yours?
We have centers that we change out every week. One of the faves is the water table, which I put different things in ALL the time (baby dolls and it’s bath time, cars and it’s a car wash, bars of soap and make bubbles, food coloring, but that dyes their hands, beach toys like buckets with holes, sieves, ice cubes with food coloring or little toys frozen in them, sink or float experiments, etc). I also have a sand table where we put things like laminated pictures of friends that they can bury and dig up, beach toys, mini beach items like balls, chairs, umbrella, basically a beach dollhouse, beans, small toys, rakes, dinosaurs, pretty much anything goes. If you don’t have an easily accessible sand/water table, put a big Rubbermaid container that is shallow on a tarp, so your mess is contained. I’ve done a daycare center, which they liked, we also did a shoe store with a sizing chart, cash register, shoe boxes, shoes, balloons, etc. We also did a hot chocolate shop, which became a Starbucks, where the kids used cotton balls as marshmallows, had styrofoam cups and popsicle stick stirrers, a cash register, and made a sign complete with prices. We also have out puppets sometimes, on a stand. If you don’t have a puppet stand, you can make one by filling a Pringles container about halfway with sand and gluing the lid back on and covering it with construction paper, or not. Then just slip your puppet over the top, and it’ll stay put! We also had a woodworking table where kids actually got to use a saw (supervised), paint, nail, screw, etc. Then we painted our creations the next week. Some of them are fairly questionable, but most of them are really cool, and their stories are over the top! We also have different colors of play doh, where we put out random stuff, but I don’t let them have knives, they have to use popsicle sticks, there just aren’t enough eyes. I replace that (it’s homemade) with a new color every month. The first month it’s pretty standard, popsicle sticks, rolling pins, etc. Then the next week I’ll put out cookie cutters or forks or something. The next week, it might be ideas of what to make, beads that they can pull out (fine motor), etc. One of their favorite things is to have glitter out that they can mix in, which ALWAYS is the week that we’re going to throw that batch away in preparation for the new color. We also put out random stuff, like a giant tic-tac-toe board on the floor made out of tape and then two different types of blocks. I’ll get giant pieces of paper and draw something on it in black marker, then the kids have to color it in as a team. I also put in a lot of folder games for them, or I’ll laminate manilla folders and let them color on them in dry erase marker. Sometimes we mix up paint with a LOT of soap, then they can paint the windows, but the next week, they have to help me get it back off (just water, I go back over it with a razor blade, it’s really not too bad). I also have small pieces of clear plastic (8×11, I think) that I purchased at Hobby Lobby for about $2 a piece, I believe. I cut a hole with a drill in the top, and let the kids paint them with water colors and hang them up with a suction cup hook to make a stained glass window. Then you can just wash off the water colors and use it again! Sometimes the red stains … Marble painting, string painting, bubble wrap painting (paint the bumpy bubbly side of bubble wrap, then put a piece of paper on it and peel it back off, it always comes out cool!), etc. Sometimes I put out stamps and ink pads, which is always fun. Last year in January, I put out light blue pieces of construction paper and the little cylinders that thread comes on, then white paint. They put the ends, the circle side) in the white paint and used it as a stamp on the paper, and it looked like snowflakes! I put out a face on the felt board with noses, eyes, etc. It’s like a human potato head … on felt board! I’ll put circles on the felt board and snowman accoutrements. I have put out pattern blocks for them to play with and make things with, then put out my pattern block stamps, white paper, and ink pads so they can recreate their creation on paper. Stencils, different writing utensils, etc. One teacher that I knew took out a piece of poster board and wrote a funny paragraph on it, but left out commas, apostrophes, and quotation marks. Then she put out macaroni elbows and glue, and let the kids glue them on to punctuate the sentence. Then she put it up in their writing center to remind them of those things. I have also had a half sheet pan from my kitchen out with the magnetic poetry kits, then the kids can make up poems and sentences. I also have a science center, where the kids can truly explore things. This can be as easy as leaves and magnifying glasses, or pine cones and knives (we cut them apart one time). Once, I cut slits in tennis balls and put something inside them (pennies, jacks, marbles, beads, confetti, buttons, bottle caps, etc). Then I put out a dish with one penny, one jack, one marble, etc. I numbered the balls, then the kids had to shake the balls and decide what object was in each ball. They loved it. One other time, I put out ramps and balls, just to see what the kids would do. Seriously, my comments on your blog get epic-ly long. I sincerely apologize, I just get SO excited! Have a great holiday season!
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December 1st, 2011 at 1:29 pm
@Nikki, haha! I dont mind a bit. Some great ideas! Pinterest has really been helping me with ideas like this.
LOVE the punctuation with macaroni idea. I think we’ll try that soon. I’ve been wanting to make a magnetic poetry set.
Lots of good ideas. I will be trying some of them. Thanks!
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