I am working in a new school this year and have a new classroom, so I’d like to post some pictures of the room over the next few days. Here are some pictures of the House Center.
Ironing board, cleaning stand, refrigerator, hutch, stove, and sink. The plastic drawers hold baby blankets, baby bottles, and bibs. In bins on top of that are phone books, recipe books, and cell phones.
I made this “window” using tall closet mirrors ($4 at Target), a lace curtain I found on clearance, and a dowel rod. I stuck 3M adhesive hooks to the wall, and set the dowel rod in the hooks. I found dowel rod finials for the ends in the same area of the craft store where the rods are sold. Kids love the mirrors because they love to look at themselves. I bought the yellow wall vases a few years ago at Joann’s. I found these child-size oven mitts at Hobby Lobby recently (too cute to pass up).
Dress up clothes on the dress up racks and a full-length mirror.
I put these posters on the back of a piece of furniture to include some print. These posters are from my Food Groups Sort & Classify set that I have in my TeachersPayTeachers store.
More pictures to come… I’d love to see your classroom, too!
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Looks awesome! I love the curtains and plants…. looks adorable!
Your House Keeping Center is very creative. I have always had my House Keeping Center set up with the kitchen on one end, and two shelving units by the fridge, just facing each other. Not very creative! I am going to use some of your suggestions, and see if I can create a more pretty and inviting Housekeeking Centre.
Thank you.
Mary
Calgary, Alberta Canada
Whenever I see a room like this, I wish my room was bigger. Your house center is almost the size of my room. (And that is only exaggerating slightly.) I do have a small number of students, but it still feels difficult to arrange and organize.
It looks great! How will you keep it neat when the kids are playing with all the items? Do you have a system?
Good question, Adrienne! My kitchen seems to EXPLODE with every dish and food item on the floor, then no one wants to clean-up! I have even pared down the amount of stuff in the kitchen… HELP
Sometimes it does help to put less in the center as long as there is still enough for the number of children you have. I have the same problem, and I have tried everything! They still throw and/or drop stuff all over the floor and leave it there to walk on. It drives me crazy. I do have to give them a consequence from time to time. For example, I tell them if I have to pick things up off the floor, then I will put it on a high shelf for a couple of days to keep it safe. If it’s bad enough I might even have to close the whole center for a day. At clean up time, my kids do put everything back where it belongs because I have the shelves clearly labeled with photos or traced shapes, and I teach, reteach, and reteach some more until they get it.
I have this rule that food should be on the table unless they are having a picnic. Teachers in my class walk around and pick up stuff on the floor so less clean up at clean up time.
LOVE the food group posters….are they yours? can you put them online???
Thanks so much, everyone!
@Adrienne: All of the shelves are labeled with pictures and words so the children can easily see where everything belongs. They do tend to drag out a lot while they are playing, and string it out on the floor and walk on it. They do better when I remind them constantly when we meet as a large group. I also circulate to the different centers to make sure they keep things off the floor.
Trilby: They are mine, but it’s actually one of my items on Teachers Pay Teachers… sorry, I feel a little guilty at the moment that it’s not free, but TPT does help me pay all the graphics subscriptions for this site. I have just set it at the max discount TPT will allow me, which is 20% off (Aug 27-30). Here’s the link: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Food-Groups-Sort-Classify
And, if you’d prefer to make your own posters, I got all the photos from clipart.com.
Your house center is gorgeous! It just makes me a bit sad because we can’t have those kinds of things any longer in our district because there is so very little time for play. Ridiculous as that seems, knowing what we all know about young children’s need to play and learn from play, we find ourselves having to put too much emphasis on academics to the point of nearly eliminating any play time. Seems the powers that be just don’t understand or don’t WANT to understand how much children learn from playing with each other. Sad, sad, sad.
Sue, That is sad! In Georgia, we are required to have a full hour of uninterrupted free choice centers.
Karen, do you have an all day Pre-K? That’s awesome you are required to have a full hour of uninterruped free choice centers!!! This year I am teaching an all day Intergenerational Pre-K and feel like I can finally relax with my free choice time!!!
Hi Rhonda! Yes, it’s all day Pre-K in a public school.
Sue, I understand what you mean!!!! The emphasis over academics has seriously squelched the creativity and learning that comes from play at this age in some areas!!! Our old principal several years back said in a meeting, “I just don’t understand the purpose behind Free Choice centers” YIKES, and she was the principal over our grade centered school of Pre-K and Kindergarten!!! I explained in much depth and then had some research given to me from one of our national board certified “K” teachers calling it, “Self Selected Learning Centers.” That’s what we referr to it as now. The principal said she could never explain Free Choice to the administration with confidence and conviction. She thought it was just play and not of much value!!! Go figure!!! We still have free choice however, but it is the time slot that gets trimmed, along with recess, trying to fit everything else in. 🙁
That’s sad that your principal doesn’t understand the purpose, but that happens sometimes. Hopefully, over time, you can educate her more and more on the reasons. In the state of Georgia, it’s a requirement for all state-funded Pre-K classes.
What is the promo code to receive the 20% off at TPT? I can’t wait to see more pics of your new classroom
You don’t need a promo code, it is listed on sale at $1.60 instead of the regular $2.00.
It looks so fun and inviting. I want to play in it! You have the greatest ideas. I love the oven mitts hanging on the front. Plan to do that in my home center. Thank you for sharing all of your great ideas!
Thanks Stephanie!
You are so lucky to have such a beautiful center for the children to learn in. In Utah where I taught kindergarten we didn’t have anything close to that either. Also, as one of the other teachers said, we weren’t allotted much time for learning centers. We were always trying to cram so much of the state curriculum and assessments into the day there wasn’t time for the things that we enjoyed about kindergarten when I was a child.
Love the house center. Cannot wait to see more pictures.
Thank you Jennine & Janet!
Such a beautiful classroom and learning environment! Your kids are so blessed to have you for their teacher!!!
Heidi Butkus
Thanks, Heidi!
I think you are very lucky. Everything looks amazing, loved the mirrors a lot.
Awesome looking House Area! The mirrors and curtain are a terrific idea I think I’ll borrow from you. Try adding real coffee cups and dishes instead of those plastic ones. When the children put them away it makes sounds like they might really hear in their homes. (In using real dishes in my center, we average a break of about 2 dishes a year.)
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is nice of you to share and help give ideas..sometimes you get in a slump and then you see this and it makes you want to do even better by the little people in your life…thanks
Thank you, Maytal, Shelli, & Lisa!
Awesome, awesome, awesome!!! I want to come play in your classroom! Thanks for giving me some new ideas. 🙂
Thanks Arianne!
I love your kitchen the curtains and mirror is a nice touch.
The housekeeping area is beautiful and creative!! This new school is blessed to have you!!
I have been reading your site for a couple of years now. I too am a prek teacher so I am always looking for new ideas and your site has been a huge help!!
Blessings!!
Thank you, Tonya! That’s very sweet!
As soon as I saw the “window” you made using the mirrors, I knew I had to use that idea. I didn’t find the $4 mirrors at target so I reused a single door mirror turned horizontally to place over the sink, stove, and cupboard. I made a valance and matching tablecloth out of some fabric from home. The children love it!
Thank you so much for sharing your ideas. It motivates me to keep my classroom fresh, which is great for the children, too. As we all know, small changes in the environment stimulates interest in the children—and interested children learn more!
Thanks so much, Lana! I’m sure it is really cute! The mirrors I used are those long, narrow ones that go on a door. It just doesn’t look like they are that long because of the furniture standing in front of them.
Thank you for sharing such beautiful ideas. I’m a principal in a very small school in a very small town, but my dreams are incredible big!….Would love to see some of our students enjoying such a pretty environment!…I’ll share your ideas with our teachers to motivate them to do fabulous things. God bless you
Thanks, Virginia! I’m glad you like it!
I love your housekeeping area!! It is so cute!! This will be my second year at Head Start and i will definitely be modeling my housekeeping area after yours!!! Thanks for the great ideas!!
Thank you, Aubrey
I LOVE YOUR ROOM!! I am a first year teacher and this year I am teaching Pre-K… I am so excited, but my room is like the size of your household center… It is so small! I dream of having that much room! But I do love your color scheme and theme for your classroom! I will be following your blog! Thanks!! 🙂
thanks, Mandy
Thank you so much for the inspiration! I have a very small classroom that has been lacking in creativity…your ideas will be put to very good use this year! THANK YOU!!
Thanks, Sharon
I am going to work Monday and re-arranging my home center..yours is soo cute!
Thank you, Sandy!
I love the classrooms. This is my first year as a Pre-K teacher. They gave me beautiful ideas on how to arrange mine.
I love your classroom. It is inviting and kids will want to be there. I could use lots of your idea to create a welcoming environment for my pre K students this year. thank you.
I love the ideas and you have and all the great themes for your classroom. Thanks for sharing. What a great place to visit for super ideas.
What a wonderful site. Thanks for sharing your talents and ideas. Keep up the great work. I will be using some of these themes and ideas in 2014/2015
just looking at your house center-so cute, and very user friendly!
Do you remember where you got the dress up racks-very cool and have never seen any like them.
thanks for all you do & share!
Happy fall.
M
They were in my classroom before I worked there. They would have come from one of the big education supply catalogs.
i really like your website. i would like to ask some questions about centers. are the kids playing in the centers independently or are you supervising them? And are they all playing just in one center or according to their choices can they play any of them? i mean is it a free play time for kids? i really wonder to improve the quality of centers. thank you very much for your ideas again. hope to see your answer in a short time.
Hi, you can read all about how I do center time here: https://www.prekinders.com/center-time/
How did you fix (attach) the closet mirrors to the wall?
I used industrial strength velcro.