The 20 Hour BasicSuccessful Solutions Professional Development LLC

Chapter 3Interest Centers

Module 2

Chapter Topics

Play is a child’s important work. They need lots of hands-on experiences with interesting things to look at, touch, and manipulate. They also need opportunities throughout the day to move and climb.

Chapter 3

Interest Centers

Chapter 4

Learning Opportunities

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Module 2 – The Importance of Play

Chapter 3 Interest Centers

An early childhood classroom should be planned with many

well-defined interest centers. A well-planned classroom

encourages children to play and develop socially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually. One child may choose a quiet spot to be alone while another might choose a more active area to work with other children.

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Module 2 – The Importance of Play

Interest centers are areas where materials are organized by type, and are accessible to children to participate in a particular kind of play.

Using these interest areas, children are able to move about the room and make choices regarding their learning.

When children change interest areas, they encounter new problems to solve, new children to talk to and work with, and new materials to master in their own way.

Chapter 3 Interest Centers

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Module 2 – The Importance of Play

An early childhood environment should include the following interest centers:

• blocks• creative art• dramatic play• sensory exploration• library/quiet area• table toys/manipulatives• outdoor/large muscle area

Chapter 3 Interest Centers

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Module 2 – The Importance of Play

Blocks are important learning tools for young children. While playing with blocks, children are in constant motion, reaching, stretching, and changing body positions.

As they build with the blocks, they are improving their eye-hand coordination and strengthening their muscles. Through block play, children also learn many new concepts and skills.

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Block Center

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

Ideally, structures can be saved from one day to the next. Blocks of different sizes and types (e.g., unit blocks and Legos), construction materials (e.g., Lincoln logs), and props (e.g., small cars and trucks) are stored on open shelves.

Some children build complex structures and play with them for several days. A sub-area can provide materials for creating huts, hideaways, caves, and tents children can use in dramatic play.

Shelves define the area and a flat carpet provides a smooth surface for building.

Chapter 3 Interest Centers

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Block Center

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

Children learn about sizes and shapes and how to cooperate as they play and carry out their ideas. Unit blocks help children grasp basic mathematical concepts.

Block building encourages children to think, play, and

solve problems.

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Block Center

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

It is a place to set up experiments, observe and learn about animals, and display collections and special items, such as a snake’s molted skin or an abandoned hornet’s nest.

If space allows, this area can include basic materials and supplies for exploring science (for example, tools and items for measuring, weighing, magnifying, examining, and taking apart).

The science and nature area should be located near windows and the sink.

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Science Center

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

The area allows children to investigate and think about nature and the environment and encourages them to become involved in community projects.

Every few weeks, new materials, equipment, and experiments can be introduced to keep interests alive.

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Science Center

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

When space is limited, equipment and supplies can be stored in a closet or wheeled shelving unit and used in the large-group activity area. This area encourages children to use their imaginations as they explore and express their feelings through singing, dancing, listening to, and creating music. Music activities also help children develop small and large muscle coordination.

Includes instruments, music books, CD and tape players, and CD’s and tapes representing a wide range of musical styles, including music from different cultures.

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Music Center

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

• learn pre-reading and pre-math concepts• develop eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills• learn problem solving, grouping, and making patterns• develop creativity

Playing with manipulatives, children:

Chapter 3 Interest Centers

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Table Toys

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

• items displayed on low shelves

• puzzles and toys representing various cultures and non-traditional male and female occupations

• table with chairs• pegs and pegboards• beads and laces• counting objects

Materials that should be available:

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Table Toys

• parquetry blocks• collections for sorting and

classifying• nesting rings or cups• bristle blocks• sewing cards• matching games

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

Physical developmental needs are closely tied to children's social and emotional needs. The physical needs can vary greatly from one year to the next. Physical development can also differ significantly from child to child. Children are growing taller, heavier, and stronger. They are challenged to learn coordination and other physical skills.

Children need physical exercise routinely every day.

Chapter 3 Interest Centers

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Outside Play

Lack of physical exercise inhibits proper growth and leaves children feeling pent-up.

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

It is important to remember that they are developing large muscle skills and are often awkward and clumsy. They should not be expected to sit for long periods of time. They need to be able to expend their energy and learn how to channel it in positive ways.

The development of children’s physical abilities increases self-esteem and a sense of greater independence.

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Outside Play

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

Science and Nature: Activity kits kept in the storage shed and used to explore the plant and animal life present in the outdoor space.

Woodworking: A bench set up in an area away from active games and sports, with tools kept in the storage shed.

Some Suggestions for Outdoor Interest Areas:

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Outside Play

Gardening: A vegetable garden in a sunny spot near the building, tools and a hose kept in the storage shed, and outside spigot to provide water.

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Construction: Saw horse, boxes, planks, tires, and boards located on the grassy area next to the playground equipment.

Reading and Quiet Games: A picnic table with two benches under a shady tree, away from the noise and hubbub, books brought out from indoors, cards and small games kept in the storage shed.

Some Suggestions for Outdoor Interest Areas:

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Outside Play

Arts and Crafts: Easels, paper, paints, and brushes can be carried from indoors to a designated area of the blacktop or picnic table; tote boxes filled with craft supplies can be kept in the storage shed.

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

They need more than a pretend kitchen, however. They also need time, tools, clothes and spaces. Providing such materials will allow for experimenting with living and working experiences both inside and outside the home.

Children delight not only in playing in dress-up clothes but playing with puppets for acting out dramatic scene.

The dramatic play area is a particularly good place for children to act out their developing awareness of the people around them.

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Dramatic Play

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• Overcome sexual stereotypes• Let children experiment with life in different cultures• Help children better understand people with special needs• Help children learn about themselves

Dramatic play spaces provide opportunities for children to:

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Dramatic Play

Children benefit in many ways from participating in dramatic play. From this type of play, children grow cognitively, physically, socially, and emotionally.

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

They may play at being a wife, husband, mommy, daddy, doctor, or police officer. This is called role-playing. Role-playing allows children to try out a variety of roles.

As children engage in dramatic play, they mimic adult roles.

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Dramatic Play

As one child plays the role of a hairstylist, another plays the role of the customer. Each role follows social rules determined by the group of children.

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A child might say “You be the doctor, and I’ll be the little girl.” Conditions are also common. For example, a child may say “I’ll play, but I have to be the bus driver.” Conditions are also common.

During this type of play, children make decisions and choices. By doing so, they learn problem-solving skills.

Children engaged in role-playing often give specific instructions for roles.

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Dramatic Play

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Language concepts are also developed as children engage in play. They learn new names for equipment and gain new ideas from other children. As they generate plots and story lines, language skills, creativity, and imagination are fostered.

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Dramatic Play

Physical development is promoted through the play actions of children: sweeping floors, dressing dolls, and pretending to paint furniture. Building structures that enhance dramatic scenes also helps develop physical skills.

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Social and emotional development are promoted through socio-dramatic play.

Children try out different social roles. Sometimes negative feelings and situations that disturb children are acted out. Through these experiences, children learn about human relationships. They learn what kind of behavior upsets another child. They learn how to get along with others and discover important social skills. As a result, they gradually learn how to balance their play to satisfy and please others.

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Dramatic Play

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Art promotes physical, social, emotional, and cognitive growth in children.

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Art Center

Physical growth is promoted through the movements involved in painting, coloring, drawing, scribbling, and playing with clay. All these motions improve fine motor skills.

Art activities foster motor and hand-eye coordination. In turn, these skills promote growth in other areas.

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Art Center

Social growth is promoted by art. Children learn responsibility. They learn that they must put their work in a safe storage space when they are finished. Learning to work and share with others is stressed.

In many programs, several children will share one container of paint or a box of crayons. They learn to respect the property of others. They also learn to value the work and ideas of others.

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Chapter 3 Interest Centers

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Art Center

Art experiences also promote emotional growth. Through a creative activity, children are allowed to express emotions. For example, pounding at the woodworking bench, hitting play dough, or scribbling with crayons allows angry children to express their frustrations in an acceptable way. Children also have the chance to choose their own activity. For instance, during a painting session children decide what they will paint. Their choices—a pet, a friend, or a flower—are often expressions of their feelings.

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Chapter 3 Interest Centers

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Art Center

Cognitive growth is promoted by exploring, experimenting, and problem solving with many materials and tools. Through this process they use the skills of an investigative scientist. They learn important concepts such as color, size, texture, and shape. By manipulating and controlling tools, skills such as drawing and cutting are learned. They learn that cutting takes things apart , while taping and stringing helps put materials together. Visual and tactile skills (skills related to sight and touch) are also developed. For example, rolling, rubbing, pounding, and tearing can change how an object looks and feels.

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Chapter 3 Interest Centers

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Incorporating the Cultures of the Children into the Interest Areas

The following are items from each center that you could incorporate into your own child care program to reflect some of the diversity found in the children in your center and/or community. Examples of appropriate materials may include:

Incorporating Culture

• Activities to represent all cultures and languages of the children in the program

• Music from various cultures• Activities to promote understanding

and acceptance of diversity

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Chapter 3 Interest Centers

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Incorporating the Cultures of the Children into the Interest Areas

• Dramatic play materials encouraging the role play of persons in other cultures or with differing abilities

• Male and female dolls representing a diversity of races, cultures, and abilities

• Opportunities for children to experience a variety of languages in spoken, song, or written form (including Braille and sign language)

Incorporating Culture

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

Chapter 3 Interest Centers

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Incorporating the Cultures of the Children into the Interest Areas

• Foods of different cultures for snack, lunch, and special celebrations

• Puzzles, pictures, and toys representing various cultures and nontraditional male and female occupations

• Books, pictures and materials accurately depicting men, women, and children of different family structures, races, cultures, ages, abilities, and occupations living their daily lives and solving problems

Incorporating Culture

Module 2 – The Importance of Play

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Chapter 3 Interest Centers

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Module 2 – The Importance of Play