Preschool teachers can provide rich learning and dramatic play experiences by being intentional in the selection of items for a home living center or dress up box. Educational picture books can provide a link between the dramatic play items provided and how the items relate to the season of winter. Teachers can read related books to preschoolers and then place the books in the dramatic play areas to spark creative pretend play.
Mittens and Gloves in a Home Living Center or Dress Up Box
When preschool teachers add sets of mitten and gloves to the home living center, young children will create their own dramatic play experiences that relate to matching, sorting, one to one correspondence and fine motor skill coordination. A basket or dress up box filled with colorful mittens and gloves will naturally peak the curiosity of preschoolers and will lead to interactive, hands-on learning activities in the classroom.
Children may choose to find and wear matching mittens or to hand out matching sets to others or to dress dolls warmly in sets of mittens. If teachers supply a clothesline and clothes pins, preschoolers may decide to hang mittens and gloves along the clothesline, which is great practice for fine motor skills and visual matching skills.
Great books to read to preschoolers about mittens are One Mitten by Kristine O’Connell George [Clarion Books, 2004], A Mountain of Mittens by Lynn Plourde [Charlesbridge Publishing, 2007] and The Mitten Tree by Candace Christiansen [Fulcrum Publishing, 2008].
A Fireplace in a Home Living Center
Winter often means lighting a fire in the fireplace. Fireplaces keep homes warm in the winter and in the past were used to cook food. A fireplace added to a home living center will provide a dramatic play place for preschoolers to tell stories, hang stockings, roast marshmallows, pretend to cook over the fire and pretend to add wood to the fire.
Teachers can fill a basket with stockings, a pretend kettle, pretend fire logs, picture books about winter and a stuffed cat to use around the fire. White play dough and large craft sticks can provide children with supplies to create their own marshmallow roast.
Several manufacturers sell corrugated cardboard fireplaces that can be set up against a wall. Preschool teachers can also create a homemade fireplace for the classroom. Teachers can draw a fireplace on a large piece of paper and tape the paper to the wall or teachers can a place a box on its side and place a few logs and paper flames inside the box. Creating a paper fireplace can also serve as a preschool winter activity in which children can be involved. Having a play fireplace in the home living center also can be used as an opportunity to teach preschoolers about fire safety.
Books about keeping warm in winter using a fireplace are Winter is the Warmest Season by Lauren Stringer [Harcourt Children's Books 2006] and Winter Days in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder [Haper Collins, 1995].
Winter Pajamas and Robes in a Home Living Center or Dress Up Box
When it’s cold in winter, pajamas and robes provide warmth at night. Teachers can fill a dress up box with nighttime clothes that keep people warm. Preschoolers will enjoy dressing up in warm winter wear such as flannel pajamas and robes for dramatic play. As well, children can dress up dolls in winter pajamas, robes and blankets to keep the dolls warm in the winter.
A fun book to spark interest in wearing pajamas is Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton [Workman Publishing Company, 2000]. Near the end of a preschool winter unit, teachers can plan a pajama day and ask children to wear their winter pajamas to school.
Create a Bear Cave in the Preschool Classroom
In the winter, bears hibernate usually in caves. Preschool teachers can encourage children to engage in dramatic play about bears living in caves and hibernating for the winter. A large appliance box can serve as a bear cave in a preschool classroom.
Teachers can first read books about bear hibernation such as Time to Sleep by Denise Flemming [Henry Holt and Company, 2001], Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson [Margaret K. McElderry, 2002] and Wake Me in Spring by James Preller [Cartwheel, 1994].
Then preschoolers can help turn the box into a bear cave as a classroom activity. Children will practice fine motor skills while using paint, crayons, markers or paper to decorate the box. A bear cave will provide dramatic play fun as preschoolers pretend to be bears that live and hibernate in a bear cave.
Adding dramatic play items and books enriches the learning about winter for preschoolers. Teachers can keep young children interested in learning about dressing warm, cooking over a fire and hibernation by offering space and materials for children to engage in pretend play.
For more ideas about preschool winter, units, read Preschool Activities about Ice and Preschool Winter Animal Science Unit.
Kelly Pfeiffer - Kelly Pfeiffer teaches Positive Discipline workshops to parents and trains child care providers on various child development topics.
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