Kinds of Learning Centers

[Josiegirl]

I don't have anything divided into learning centers, per se, but would love to incorporate some into my home daycare. I have a corner of our playroom designated for the kitchen area, the living room is where reading time occurs because that's where the shelves of books are and so are our dollhouses. Then I have lots of blocks available in the living room, as well as the playroom. Art, puzzles, manipulative play is usually done at our child table in the kitchen. How do I turn my dc home into a more smoothly run program.
Any suggestions? And when you have, for instance, the block corner, do you rotate most of the stuff in and out as their interest flows?
Thanks everybody!!

[Febby]

Well, I've only worked in centers, but we always store similar things together. Each area has basic core things that are always out. The rest get rotated in/out based on what they're using, what they're interested in, what we're currently learning about, and what the current abilities of my group are.

For example, in the art area, the basics are always available. Paper, crayons, chalk, small chalkboards, pretty much anything that I should be able to expect any 3 year old to be able to use. As the year goes on and the children are able to do more things without a teacher having to closely supervise use of a specific material, more things are added. Scissors and glue are the big ones there. Stencils, for example, are rotated. I have a big bin full in the closet, but usually only have 5-8 out at a time. The alphabet and number stencils are pretty much always out, but the rest vary. When I rotate (those I usually rotate monthly), I'll take out whatever they're not really using and replace it with something else. I'm rotating on Friday evening since we're starting a new unit (community & families) Monday. I'll leave out the people stencils, those are relevant and my kids use them. I'll take out the fruit and veggies stencils because they're not. I'll add in my house stencils because that fits the unit and I'll throw in a dinosaur one because my kids are into dinosaurs.

[Cat Herder]

http://www.pre-kpages.com/whats-in-your-science-center/

I could type for days and not do a better job than the lady from the above link.

[Josiegirl]

Thanks to both of you!
I need to find a place low enough for the 3 yos to reach art supplies but high enough to pose a challenge to the 2 yos who are into everything. I've got lots of nice stuff but it's kind of scattered all over, ya know? Same with math and science activity stuff. And I loved the prekpages science center ideas!
My mentor for STARS came today and I discussed it with her too! So I'm now armed with lots of good ideas and starting points!

[Josiegirl]

I wish I had more room here.

I cleared out everything in my playroom, except what's attached. I shampooed the rug. And started putting things back, little by little, making areas and dividing them using a set of shelves and marking the block area with an area rug. I'm pretty pleased with my dramatic area. My block area is well supplied. Then I have an area with dollhouses, a farm, baskets of people, animals, furniture.

Now for all the stuff I still want to add. I guess art will still stay in the kitchen because it's easier to supervise and clean. I have a separate spare bedroom that I use to store games, puzzles and all the smaller pieced sets. Maybe I'll turn that into a manipulative center.

Nature/science center....argh At the moment I've just got my science things on my living room shelves to take to the kitchen table.

Reading center....I have shelves and shelves of books in my living room so I really don't consider it a center?

Wish I had more room AND somebody to come in and magically turn it into what I'd like.