According to PBS Teachers (pbs.org), dramatic play allows young children to use their imaginations to explore ideas about themselves, their classmates and the environment. This can be achieved more easily if educators stock the dramatic play center with themed supplies, such as play food, empty pasta and pizza boxes, take-out menus, a cash register and play money for a restaurant theme. Children practice math skills by counting money and literary skills by deciphering the menu and jotting down orders, while using their creativity to cook the food in the play kitchen.
According to Scholastic, the block center lets children construct a masterpiece, changing it as they go, as blocks are an open-ended process. Children practice math skills when building with blocks as they note the different shapes and sizes of the blocks and that the long rectangle blocks make the best base, while tube-shaped blocks make the tower higher. Children learn that if they build the tower too high, it will fall over, so they improvise and adjust the blocks and start over. Often they will work together, and use their imaginations to add knights and dragons to a castle or farm animals to newly built barn.
In the art center, provide plenty of room at the tables and easels so that the children can each have space to work creatively and express themselves. Feature both Play-Doh and clay in the art center, as they provide different textures; also make available Play-Doh cutting scissors and cookie-cutters for children to experiment with. Bring out finger paint and let the children use their imagination and the paints to create a picture at either the easel or the table. Keep smocks on hand and set the art center up right next to the sinks so it's easily accessible after messy projects. After children become more efficient cutting Play-Doh, bring out different types of paper and more children's scissors so they can practice their cutting skills.
In the classroom library, stock the area with picture books that the children can thumb through and re-tell the story by looking at the pictures or recognizing a few of the words. Furnish the area with beanbag chairs so children can relax, and include a selection of puppets from classic fairy tales in case the children wish to act out the stories.
In the writing area, include easels with magnetic letters and tracing paper with dotted letters to assist the children in recognizing the alphabet and learning how to write their name.