Dramatic Play Center in Preschool

Preschool Dramatic Play Center

The dramatic play center in preschool classrooms is always a huge hit with young children. Every year it’s a tie between which center is the most popular in my classroom, the dramatic play center or the blocks center.

Young children thrive on pretend play, they love to dress up and role play real life situations in this center. The opportunities for developing creativity, imagination, and oral language skills in the play center are endless!

Preschool Pretend Play Center

Dramatic Play Center in Preschool

Children playing in the dramatic play area may appear as if they are just playing, but experts in early childhood education understand otherwise.

Many opportunities for both learning and fun can fill your pretend center. If you’re intentional about planning rich and meaningful play experiences for your little learners, they’ll be having fun while learning through play!

Dramatic Play Themes for Preschool

Benefits of Dramatic Play in Preschool

Young children are extremely observant and enjoy pretending to act out social situations they see in everyday life.

When they’re acting out these scenarios in the dramatic play center, they’re expanding their vocabularies and developing important oral language skills. They are learning to think in complex ways. They are also solving problems. Additionally, they are improving their ability to understand and work well with others.


Playing make-believe helps kids think critically, solve problems, talk better, and learn many other things! Kids learn language, math, science, social studies, motor skills, and socializing through pretend play.

Social Studies in the Dramatic Play Area

Social Studies

Your dramatic play center in preschool provides many opportunities for kids to learn about families, communities and how the world works. Kids can learn about where food comes from in a pretend play apple orchard or at the farmer’s market.

You can teach students about different jobs by creating play scenarios in your pretend play area. These scenarios may be based on places such as the fire station, doctor’s office, or car repair shop.

Social Skills in the Dramatic Play Area

Social Skills

Young children learn how to work cooperatively and solve problems when they engage in pretend play.They’re developing empathy as they respond to the needs of babies in the nursery or sick animals in the vet clinic.

Language Skills in the Dramatic Play Area

Language Skills

Young children can practice new vocabulary in the dramatic play center. Kids practice communication and expressing preferences while playing pretend in this center, like saying “No tomatoes on my taco please!”

Literacy in the Dramatic Play Area

Dramatic Play Learning Center: Literacy Skills

Your kids can engage with a wide variety of printed text in the dramatic play area. Items such as restaurant menus, a grocery shopping list, campground maps, and pizza order forms teach kids about reading and writing in our daily lives.

Learning Numbers in Dramatic Play

Math Skills

So many opportunities to develop math skills in the dramatic play area exist. When kids ring up purchases at the grocery store, count out the scoops at the ice cream shop, buy stamps at the post office, or take the temperature of sick animal at the vet clinic they’re practicing important early math skills.

The grocery store conveyor belt and keypad shown above are part of the Melissa and Doug Fresh Mart Grocery Store set.

Dinosaur Dig Pretend Play Field Notes Printable

Science Skills

Even science skills can be taught through dramatic play in preschool as young children pretend to be astronauts in the space center or paleontologists on a dinosaur bone expedition. They’ll be absorbing and practicing important scientific vocabulary when they engage in these types of science rich pretend play scenarios.

Furniture for Dramatic Play Center

How To Set Up A Dramatic Play Center in Preschool

You usually determine the size of your dramatic play center based on how much space you have for it. If you have a large classroom with lots of space, then the sky’s the limit.

Center Essentials Cover 400

To start stocking your play area, get kid-sized furniture like a table, chairs, sink, stove, oven, and refrigerator. I love this wooden kitchen from Discount School Supply for the dramatic play center. People often refer to these as “combo” or “all-in-one” kitchen play sets.

Dramatic Play Center for Small Spaces

Dramatic Play Area Furniture

You can have a functional and successful dramatic play area even with a small budget, classroom, or space. I used plastic drawers from any large retail store to create a play kitchen. I used one as-is to create the stove and oven, and the slender one was pained with silver spray paint to create the refrigerator. Then, I just printed clipart on sticker paper, cut each image out, and attached it to the top and front of the drawer units to make it a bit more realistic.

If you have the space and budget for a large play kitchen, here are my suggestions:

To learn how to set up your own dramatic play area, download my free Center Essentials Guide. It has classroom maps, supply lists, and more!

Dramatic Play Themes for Preschool

Engaging Dramatic Play Center Themes

You can change your dramatic play center throughout the year to keep it fresh, fun, and exciting. It also allows your little learners to have a wide variety of role-playing experiences.

We begin the school year with a simple home living area or play kitchen. Then, we make it more interesting by changing our pretend play themes every two weeks.

How to Set the Table Placemat
Changing dramatic play center every two to four weeks allows children opportunities to practice important vocabulary, begin to internalize the new words offered in each play theme, and role-play a variety of common situations.

The how to set the table placemat pictured above is from the Home Living Dramatic Play Kit.

Huge List of Dramatic Play Center Themes

Click the links below to view pictures and learn more about the various dramatic play themes we’ve used in our classroom.

Dolls for Pretend Play in Preschool

Dolls for Pretend Play

Having dolls of different ethnicities in the play area helps students identify with different cultures and promotes acceptance.

I found all the dolls pictured here at my local Goodwill store for a few dollars each. I was lucky enough to have a parent make doll clothes one year, and I bought the rest of the clothes for the dolls at the toy store since I didn’t have to spend too much for the dolls.

Props for Dramatic Play

Props for The Dramatic Play Set Up

Having props to enhance opportunities for oral language and skill development is essential in your dramatic play area. Giving students props in the dramatic play area boosts engagement and improves language and skill development.

Giving careful thought and consideration about which props to add to your center is important. You can use real life props, purchase some made specifically for pretend play, or source others inexpensively at the dollar store. You can even make some props yourself.

Dramatic Play Props
Old purses, wallets, keys, old cell phones without the sim card, and used gift cards are always extremely popular in the pretend play center. I found these purses at a garage sale. Save your old gift cards, wallets, and keys to use in the dramatic play center, you can ask your family and friends to save these things for you too.

Dramatic Play Tools and Toys for Preschool Classroom

Dramatic Play Center Ideas: Props for Pretend Play

Many pretend play props are readily available to purchase in stores. Below are some of my personal favorites for dramatic play in preschool.

Dramatic Play Dress Up Clothes

Dress Up Clothes for Pretend Play

Don’t forget to add dress-up clothes to your dramatic play area. You can attach hooks with adhesive backing to the wall to hang up your dramatic play clothing.

My favorite place to get dress up clothes is the thrift store. You’ll find a wide variety of fun clothes that won’t break the bank at your local thrift store. Another way to get inexpensive play clothes is to shop the costume sales after Halloween.

Center Essentials Cover 400

If you have a budget and would like to invest in some kid-friendly dress-up clothes, here are a few popular choices:

Best Books for your dramatic play center

Print-Rich Dramatic Play Center

Including print in every center in your classroom is important. You can easily add print to any center by providing your kids with books to go along with a theme. Place a tub or basket of books about homes, clothes, food, and families in your home living center, including cookbooks and magazines. This will help them understand that people use many different types of texts for different purposes.

Printable Cookbook for Dramatic Play
When you put books in this center, you help your students learn how important reading is, especially for the baby dolls. Show your kids how to read board books to the baby dolls as they hold and rock them in the play center.

Printable Labels for Dramatic Play

Printable Labels

Labels are another way to create a print-rich environment in your play centers. When it comes to cleaning up the dramatic play area, labels are your best friend! Label everything in this center for faster and smoother clean-up for everyone.

You can take pictures of each item in this center with your phone, then add them to a Word or PowerPoint document. You’ll also want to add words along with the pictures on the labels to help create a print rich environment in your classroom.

If that sounds like a lot of work, I’ve got your back! My home living dramatic play kit includes these printable labels. You can print them out and use in your pretend play area to help organize your pretend food and dishes.

Here are some ideas for adding print to popular play themes in your dramatic play set-up:

  • Grocery Store – ads, coupons, sale signs, shopping lists
  • Post Office – price charts, postcards, stamps, labels, envelopes
  • Restaurant – menus, signs, order forms, guest checks
  • Fire Station – checklists, signs, reports, maps
  • Doctor’s Office – sign-in sheets, signs, checklists

Preschool Pretend Play Center

Teaching Trailblazers™

Having a dramatic play center in your classroom is awesome! But let’s face it, a dramatic play center can’t make you a better teacher. The best place to discuss teaching best practices and get the support you need is in the Teaching Trailblazers. We have many printable lessons and on-demand video trainings to help you become the best teacher you can be! If you want to get on the waiting list for the Teaching Trailblazers, do it soon so you don’t miss the next open enrollment period!

10 thoughts on “Dramatic Play Center in Preschool”

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  3. I love all these ideas! Question though, when switching out your dramatic play themes what do you do with the play kitchen? Do you convert it to other things or remove from dramatic play area?

    1. I leave it in the dramatic play center because there’s nowhere else to put it. I have covered it before for certain themes like space. I always leave the baby dolls in the center since babies are everywhere in real life (except space 🙂

  4. Hello,
    I have a question about the use of sensory tables. What is the best approach, with 4 and 5 year olds, in keeping the area (floor) clean so no one slips and falls?
    Thank you,
    Lori

    1. I put a beach towel under the sensory tub to catch the rice, water, seeds, etc that fall on the floor. It’s not perfect but it stops the “filler” from spreading and doesn’t provide a tripping hazard. Our sensory tub is located in a corner, rather than an active area, which also helps to control it.

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