I'm working on my "interest centers", and would like ideas. My youngest are 19 months old. Here's what I have so far:

Art:
scraps of anything, colored pencils, crayons, and scissors in reach. Also colored paper, white paper, and a couple coloring books. Thinking about glue sticks, but so far, they have not been used responsibly; even the 3 1/2 yo tends messes around with them. She rolls them out, paints her face, etc..

Science: we have a bunch of plants, some of which the kids planted from seeds themselves. We also have a tornado tube. We also currently have a bear skull, fur, a beaver skull, scat, and some foot-print molds. This is all on loan from the wildlife refuge. Very cool!

Out of easy reach but in view: playdough, stamp pads and stamps, markers, sheets of foam, glitter, elmers glue, acrylic and water color paints.

Math:
not much so far. I have a wooden clock puzzle and an old clorox wipes container (very well washed, label removed) with milk caps as counters. I'm thinking I also need writing paper, pencils, and rulers. I own number magnets, but haven't figured out how to incorporate those.

Dramatic play/kitchen:
I have a lovely wood kitchen set, lots of food, plates, cups, toy appliances, and hats and shoes for dress up. There is a small table and 2 chairs. Mostly, they throw it all around, and rarely does anyone "cook" anything. I know I need an acrylic mirror-it's on my list.

Blocks:
I own unit blocks, but they are currently out of reach, because up until now they've only been used to build something briefly, then send it crashing. Usually, it's one of the other kids that knocks it down, and then it's scream-fest. They're heavy and I think that's unsafe. I also have a bunch of small tree cookies that can be used as blocks. That's been hit-and-miss. As accessories, I have a bunch of vehicles & some good plastic animals.

Literacy:
I have a nice sized book rack filled with books based on the month's theme. I have no accomidation for writing because of space issues. I'm still trying to figure that out. I also have a set of ABC magnets on the door, but not near the book area, so it's sort of split up.

My space is a small bedroom that has the kitchen in it, and then my livingroom/dinningroom/kitchen/entry area. No seperate space just for daycare other than that small room, so I'm a little stingy about what I put up on the walls. I have a display of kid's art work above their cubbies.

If anyone has any more ideas to expand my "centers", or what should go together, let me know....

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Off the top of my head for Math/Science areas I can suggest magnifying glasses, counting bears with patterns (or something similar), big fuzzy dice for counting, lacing cards, bead for stringing, an abacus, dominos, a plastic scale, kitchen timer, sealed containers with different amounts of liquid in them, color paddles, a kaleidoscope, giant horse shoe sized magnet and that's all I got right now

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Thanks! I am also working on theme units for my curriculum, so I will definately incorporate those ideas. I got 12 units put together this morning (based on High-Reach learning's curriculum). Each unit has 3-5 themes integrated. I bought 2 large plastic drawer things (3 drawers each), need 2 more (that's all I could fit in my car).

Now I have to set up the environment, and then I plan on rotating items into each area based on the month's theme unit.

I would love to go with an emergent curriculum eventually, but I think I will plan the first year out in advance; then I will have the support materials to move towards the children's interests.

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Here is the sheet they give us for our rating system. I am sure it is the same as yours as our system was based off yours

http://www.mnchildcare.org/quality/P...ningCenter.pdf

I think it is a handy sheet to cross reference so that I know I always have the "right" things in the learning centers.

I know others aren't too happy about the rating system but I am kind of looking forward to it. ()

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just saw you state rating system..

Do all of those have to be laid out inside your house?

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Yep, at least as far as I can tell we have to have ALL those learning centers stocked and available for the kids in order to be rated higher.

The rating system is new and only voluntary for us right now but I am currently going through everything I have going on and hoping to participate in the rating system by summer.

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got it... I have all of them, but some are outside my home. Like the nature center is outside in the backyard. We also have an off site farm that belongs to my ex-husbands family.

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Thank you! I kind of knew all this, but this frames it very nicely. I amI seeing the pre-rater tonight at a meeting, and will show this to her. I am sure this will help alot of people!

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Well just in case you are in need of any other nicely formatted forms or info sheets, here is the link to our Parent Aware. Just click on any of the little arrows and it will open pdf files that you can print off or use for reference.

http://www.parentawareratings.org/en...ducators/tools

I have been browing around the links, tools and other helpful things the site is offering and I really like how user friendly it is for us.

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WEll, I actually have all of those things on the list, but not on purpose.... :P I'm just one of those people that always has too much "stuff". I even bought a pair of guinea pigs just for the center this last weekend.

BBO - I thought of a couple of things that are easy and your kids might enjoy.

My kids love the duplos. They play with them almost daily and they cooperate with them a lot!

In my math center I have stringing beads. They don't use them a lot independently, but have fun with them when I get them started and will often keep playing with them when I start them out.

One thing on my "wish list" on Amazon are the round magnets. Online you can get quite a few templates (or make your own out of coloring pages) where the kids match a magnet with each circle. Older kids can even match colored circles with colored magnets. I recently bought some plain round magnets to make my own colored ones (a lot cheaper). Somewhere I have a link for some of the templates for the pages to print out. If anyone is interested, I'll look it up. NOT safe for under three, I'm sure, but could be available for older kids.

We have had a lot of fun with making "music". I've picked up a few "instruments" at various thrift stores (maracas, tamborine, drums), and have fun making our own. I have plans to make a whole orchestra and maybe even learn to play spoons or do some slap rythm. So far we've done water xylophones and clapping, snapping, and talked about what music is and how anything can be used to make music (we watched the example from the Tarzan cartoon of the apes making the song with all of the pans, etc). We have it on a disney(?) music video. OK, this isn't really center stuff, but there is so much there you could put in a center. Some old pan lids for cymbals - an old pot and wooden spoon for a drum (even different sized ones for different sounds), wooden bowls with spoons..... OK, I think you get the idea. This is what I'm working toward in my center. .....

Hope any of this helps a little!

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One of the things we love here is our homemade light table. (for teh science center) Store bought ones are a couple hundred dollars so we made ours for around $30.

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I have bought stuff specifically made to use with it, but I have also found a lot of great stuff at the $ store...like these plastic shot glasses...of course I didn't tell the kids they were shot glasses...we call them "light tubes" ....lol

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I love your light table. Would you mind sharing how you made it?

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I copied these directions..

http://www.teachpreschool.org/2011/0...y-light-table/

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Thank you

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