Front and Centers: Subjects/Skills Learned In Learning Centers

As a preschool teacher, I am concerned with the skills and subjects that my children learn and use on a daily basis. Even though the majority of preschool programs are play-based, learning skills is the foremost factor in selecting manipulatives in the centers. 

I recently read a tip in my Mailbox Magazine e-mail newsletter about placing signs alerting parents to the skills facilitated in centers. Underneath you will find some of my ideas of skills that are used in each of the following centers: 


Housekeeping/Dramatic Play 

• Social skills and peer interaction
• Imaginative play
• Independent thought
• atypical use of manipulatives to develop dramatic play experiences 

Interest Table (Science and Math)

• Exploration
• Interest in one's physical environment and our world (animal and plant life) 
• Cause and effect through manipulation of objects
• Sensory experience
• Logical thought
• Pre-math skills 
• Independent understanding of selected concepts (Colors, Counting, Shapes, The Five Senses) 

Water Table 

• Fine motor 
• Cause and effect
• Weight and measurements such a as volume 
• Peer interaction 
• Sensory experience 
• Exploration

Block Center 

• Peer interaction 
• Judgement evaluation (How many blocks will it take before my tower falls?)
• Logical thought and mathematical concepts such as non-standard forms of measurement using blocks or cars
• Imaginative play 
• Atypical use of manipulatives to develop dramatic play experiences (Building a garage out of blocks for their cars or using a block as a telephone) 

Easel

• Creative art experiences
• Developing an eye for color and physical beauty 
• Fine motor 
• Facilitating patterning, use of color theory and mixing, shape recognition and identification
• Spacial concepts (How much paint can fill up my page?)
• Use of art to explore one's emotions and development of self-concept 
• Individual thought