Learning centers in a prekindergarten classroom can help young children learn and develop.
Early childhood educators sometimes structure their classrooms into learning centers. These areas allow children to pursue their interests by moving freely from center to center. The objectives of classroom learning centers include facilitating the students' acquisition of skills, knowledge and positive behaviors. Learning centers provide tools that help preschoolers attain both cognitive and affective goals as they prepare for kindergarten and their future education.
Art Center
Establish an art learning center in your prekindergarten classroom, stocked with a variety of art supplies and materials. Some early childhood teachers prefer to offer one medium each day. Other teachers offer two or three options in the art center from which children can choose. Materials and projects can include clay, playdough, fingerpainting, painting with brushes, crayons, chalk, non-permanent markers and colored pens and pencils. Art centers might feature a permanent drawing table, where children can come at any time to draw by themselves, while a second table in the art center offers children the opportunity to work with a medium, such as paint, that needs adult supervision,
Dramatic Play
Set up a dramatic play learning center that allows children to engage in make-believe. Dramatic learning centers typically include dolls, doll clothes, kitchen utensils, dress-up clothes, telephones, play computers, briefcases and other objects that represent aspects of day-to-day life. Preschool children can act out familiar scenes as they attempt to organize and understand the world. The dramatic play learning center allows children to understand their environment by repeating the actions they see in their homes and neighborhoods. An alert teacher can discern a child's fears or internal struggles by watching dramatic play.
Building Center
Organize a building learning center with a variety of blocks and other construction equipment. This center should include a wide range of block sizes and shapes, as well as different types of building blocks, including ones that stack and others that fit together. Some children select smaller blocks and manipulatives with which to work, while others prefer working with large blocks. Additional toys that the teacher can include in the block corner include toy hammers, saws, screwdrivers and other types of building trades tools.
Library Center
Open the world of reading and books to children with a library learning center that provides easy access to books throughout the day. Some prekindergarten classrooms limit childrens' exposure to books to story time, but a library learning center offers children the opportunity to curl up with a book in a comfortable beanbag or on a carpet any time throughout the day. Teachers can rotate the books every few days to ensure that the children always have fresh and exciting choices. The teacher can select books from the library learning center to read to the entire class, then return the book to the shelf so that children can review it on their own during the time they circulate through the learning centers.
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