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kendallina 12:07 PM 08-08-2014
I run a preschool from my home and all of my centers are available everyday. I don't find them to be bored, but I do change things out every couple of weeks (not everything, but some things). My current centers are:

- Pretend (right now we have a pet shop, but I always also keep the kitchen set and a little bit of food in there).

- Block area (wooden and cardboard blocks, dollhouse people (my dollhouse is currently broken), animals and cars, nothing really inspiring right now which is why they aren't using that are a lot)

- Book area (books, puzzles, geoboards, etc)

- Puppet show area (just donated from a former teacher)- but sometimes this space is a writing area or manipulatives area or nature area or magnets, etc.

- Art (always available, typical art stuff like glue, markers and scissors and playdough, silly putty, collage stuff, recyclable art).

- Sensory table (rice, been that way for over a month and still gets played with daily).

With the idea of changing things out everyday, it might be too much change. Of course, this depends on your ages and your group of kids, but I know mine play in different ways with the same stuff every day and they also extend how they play with it every day...like, one day with the pet stuff, they're buying pets. The next they're playing vets with the pet stuff, the next they were the pets and were being walked around on "leashes"-scarves on their arms. I think if I had changed out what we had, it never would have developed into so many different types of play. But, you know your group best. You can always give something a try, watch how it goes and adjust.

ETA; I've gotten most of my dress up clothes from goodwill. I get pretty dresses that are like a size 8i or so to fit large on a 4-yr old. I've also found some pretty fancy shoes in slightly bigger sizes than most of my kiddos. For more costume-y type things, I usually find stuff at yard sales or after halloween sales.
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