For the month of May, we have an Ice Cream Shop Dramatic Play center in our preschool classroom. I have many more Dramatic Play centers here. At the bottom of this post, I will share where I got each item.
This is the front of our Ice Cream Shop. The top shelf has ice cream bowls, spoons, ice cream scoops, chalkboard sign, and a tub of craft pom-pons. We used the pom-pons for our pretend “ice cream”.
On the middle shelf, we have a basket of order forms, punch cards, and ice cream containers. (We didn’t use the bottom shelf this time.)
Our shelf has a built-in awning, which I covered in white and blue bulletin board paper. The Ice Cream pennant banner is a printable from Pre-K Pages that I tied with polka dot ribbon.
These ice cream bowls and spoons came from the Dollar Tree several years back. I have also seen them at Hobby Lobby.
These clear plastic cups make great ice cream cups. These are inexpensive condiment cups from Walmart. I bought the largest craft pom-pons I could find for our scoops of ice cream. One of my students said I needed to buy some small red ones for the cherries — I’ll have to get those next time I’m at the store!
These ice cream scoops are inexpensive dollar store buys. I put them in a clear plastic container.
I saved these pint sized containers last summer after they were empty and washed.
These printables add literacy to our center. The frequent buyer punch cards are a freebie from Pre-K Pages. The ice cream order forms are in a separate Pre-K pages packet.
Our Ice Cream Shop signs decorate our shop.
I used this little easel chalkboard sign for a list of ice cream flavors. (If only I could make my handwriting straight instead of slanted.) The easel was $6 from Michaels.
I used these chalkboard signs to make price signs for sundaes, ice cream cones, and milkshakes. These are the same chalkboard signs I used in our Bakery Shop, and they were inexpensive chalkboards from Michaels ($2). I wrote on them with chalkboard markers.
What do you have in your Ice Cream Shop Dramatic Play Center? Please share your ideas in the comments section below!
Where it Came From:
I used several printable items from the Ice Cream Shop Dramatic Play Pack which is sold at Vanessa’s site, Pre-K Pages.
- pennant banner on the awning
- order forms
- signs: shop sign, open/closed, shop hours, ice cream chart, car night ad
Other Items:
- Ice cream bowls – Dollar Tree or Hobby Lobby
- Clear bowls – Walmart
- Pom-pons – any craft store
- Ice cream scoops – dollar stores
- Chalkboard signs – Michaels
The market shelf with awning is the “Village Store” from Community Playthings. This shelf is the toddler size shelf, so the shelf is not tall. We use it just to display our store items, the kids don’t actually stand there the whole time. It works well for our class.
Disclosure: I was not paid or compensated in any way to promote any of the above products listed on this page. The links are provided simply to be helpful.
Wow great idea
Magnificent in summer
I love your dramatic play theme ideas. The pizza shop was a huge hit with my parents and the gang. The bakery theme we do in December and I found the little cup cakes at Easter. Now the Ice Cream Shop… That will be June. Thank you… Keep the ideas coming.
Thank you! Glad to hear your students are having fun with it!
Another Idea i have used successfully with this home corner theme is to add peppermint, strawberry or vanilla essence to make the play dough smell like its flavoured colour it represents! The children really loved it!
This idea is wonderful! You are very creative and imaginative! Thanks for sharing.
Dear Karen Cox,
I just love all your ideas. I look forward for new ideas from your site every single day Thanks a great deal for sharing!
Thanks so much!
Ohh i so love this . Next school term will be my first year teaching i will need this and i am so thankful for all you dol
Love your creativity! Thank you for your generosity with ideas and printables.
Floam makes another great ice cream medium – great for the motor coordination of scooping and tolerance to textures 🙂
That is a great idea! I actually did try to find some Floam for the ice cream and couldn’t find it anywhere.
They had those little chalkboard easels at the Target Dollar Spot recently too for $3, one side is a chalkboard and the other is a dry erase board. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing, Vanessa! I’ll have to look at my local Target.
We had fun with this unit as well. I love the POM POM’s as scoops of ice cream….great idea.
We added a cash register and Baskin Robins gift cards for the children to swipe when paying for the ice cream.
I love the Baskin Robins gift card idea!
I love these extra play areas. I put up a doctors office and was very excited. We talked about the new toys. And all year long about being kind to our toys but by day two all my shots were broke and bandages were in knots. We talked about how sad it is when we have to throw away. What can I do to teach them to resect the classroom? Please don’t miss understand I’m not expecting perfection just don’t not destruction.
I can’t wait to put an ice cream shop in my room. All the suggested equipment is spelled out so clearly. The children will have a great time in the ice cream store this week. Thanks.
Our Ice Cream Shop will be open for business in a few weeks! In addition to many of the items listed above – we provided empty whipped cream cans as well as recycled bottles of chocolate and caramel sauce. In addition, I purchased bubbles in Popsicle and soft serve ice cream cone shaped bottles.(I found them at the Dollar Tree) I put the bubbles in a separate bottle for later use and hot glued the cones/Popsicles so they would remain in one unit.
I love the idea of using floam as ice cream – we tried playdough last year which dried out after a few days of use! Can’t wait to try it!!!!
Great ideas, LeAnn! Thanks for sharing!
It’s really fantastic I love the idea
Great Ideas…my friend shared ..NOW I want to join..
Your ideas are so inspiring!
I am really looking forward to see how the children’s eyes will shine with excitement when they
enter the classroom.
Thank you .
Karen, Thanks for sharing your ideas. I am so excited to introduce some new dramatic play areas, and with half the work! I love the display ideas and the printables that are available from both you and Vanessa (Pre-K pages). I am ready to roll!
This gives me a lot of inspiration~Thanks
I love the idea. Well done.